Australian PV researchers persevere in difficult environment

Researchers at Australia’s leading PV research institutions, including the ANU and the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, continue to move PV forward despite concerns over the status of ongoing government funding.

The position of Australia as a leading location for solar photovoltaic (PV) research and training remains strong, with some of the leading bodies continuing to make progress in R&D-stage PV innovation. One of the most recent developments has was the announcement, late last month, that the Australian National University (ANU) has hit a new cell efficiency milestone, in partnership with Trina.

ANU and Trina announced they had achieved 24.4% conversion efficiency for a laboratory scale Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) cell. Trina is developing a commercial module employing the technology and has achieved a 22% IBC PV module. The Trina module is 125mm by 125mm, with 238W output.

US-based SunPower currently employs back contact technology in its high efficiency modules, and has achieved considerable financial success with its modules on the back of a strong project development business, a in-house solar lease scheme and strong demand for high efficiency modules from the Japanese PV market.

ANU’s Andrew Blakers told RenewEconomy that as understanding in the PV market about the importance of minimising non-module costs, known as balance of system (BOS), the demand for high efficiency modules will grow.

“I think there’s room in the market for both moderate and high efficiency modules, but I don’t think there’s much room in the market for low efficiencies,” said Blakers. “If you’ve got a cell that’s more efficient than some other solar cell, then that means you need less glass, less frames, less transport, land, fencing, wiring, all of these things need to be included in the equation. When you do that you find fairly quickly that efficient modules are worth a lot more, in terms of dollars-per-Watt, than less efficient modules.”

Blakers, who is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at the ANU, reported that the funding environment for PV R&D is improving for Australian institutions, on the back of major Chinese producers bouncing back into profitability.

“The worldwide PV industry is now recovering and most companies that survived are now making profits,” said Blakers, “so it’s now possible again for these companies to make substantial contributions to research.” The ANU PV head said that the 2011, 2012 and 2013 were difficult times in attracting PV R&D funding from Chinese producers.

The ANU and Trina collaboration was delivered through the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIES) and in a collaboration with the Australian consulting firm PV Lighthouse.

Richard Corkish took up the position of COO of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) in December 2013. The former Head of Photovoltaics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) told RenewEconomy that the interest in research partnerships between Chinese PV manufacturers and Australian researchers has improved, however large funding deals remain scarce.

“There are certainly signs that it’s all coming back and there are certainly signs of interest,” said Corkish. “We’ve signed a lot of agreements regarding our new hydrogenation work, where we’re improving the quality of silicon wafers. There is strong interest from industrial partners in being involved in that and we have quite a number signed up.”

Corkish believes that despite the balance sheets of large Chinese solar manufacturers improving, they are waiting for margins to improve before freeing up funds for big R&D projects. ACAP’s hydrogenation work aims to improve the quality of PV cell feedstock, which could deliver major cost reductions for cell producers – allowing them to use less expensive polysilicon while still turning out relatively efficient cells.

“The hydrogenation work involves understanding the behaviour of differently polarised hydrogen atoms in silicon material and how it can passivate the bulk and the surface. It is a technology and step forward that we have great hopes in and that we are expecting to make a big impact,” said Corkish.

ACAP’s partners are also involved in the Australian-US Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics (AUSIAPV), bringing together the leading Australian PV research programs of schools such as ANU and UNSW, with leading US researchers. The US partners include National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories, Arizona State University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Stanford University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Australian partners of AUSIAPV have received a grant of $33.1 million, through UNSW, to fund their research. The grant was delivered through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Richard Corkish said that ARENA’s input to the research environment has been impressive, and he believes the body is managing the government’s funding well.

“We work quite closely with ARENA and it is being very careful that it gets all the expected outcomes from its funding,” said Corkish. The ACAP COO said that any reduction of available research funding through ARENA would be “very harmful”.

“It might happen but it would be unwise, very sad and very harmful to the potential that is undoubtedly in the research community in PV in this county. There are not that many technological areas where we can say that Australia is right at the forefront, but it’s definitely true of PV.”

ANU’s Andrew Blakers concurs: “At the moment we hear that there are threats to the carbon price, the Renewable Energy Target (RET) and research funding through ARENA. None of those threats have been directly implemented and I hope that none of them will be. If they all are, carbon price removed, RET gutted, and ARENA is heavily curtailed then it would become very difficult for us. No question about that.”