SUPERSOLAR Solar Energy Hub

The market for photovoltaic (PV) solar modules is experiencing astonishing growth due to increasing energy demand, security of supply issues, increasing cost of fossil fuels and concerns over global warming. The world market for photovoltaics grew by 139% to 21GW in 2010. Although this extraordinary pace of growth is unlikely to be maintained in the short term it will advance rapidly again at the point where grid parity is achieved. It is important that the UK retains a strong research presence in this important technology. It is proposed that the SUPERSOLAR Hub of Universities be set up to co-ordinate research activities, establish a network of academic and industrial researchers, conduct cross-technology research and provide a focus for international co-operation.

SUPERSOLAR is led by CREST at Loughborough University and supported by the Universities of Bath, Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield and Southampton. This group is active in all of the PV technologies including new materials, thin film chalcopyrite, c-Si, thin film a-Si, dye sensitised solar cells, organic PV, concentrator PV, PV systems performance and testing. SUPERSOLAR will set up a solar cell efficiency measurement facility for the benefit of the PV community in the UK. The consortium contains a deliberate balance of expertise, with no bias towards any one technology.

The SUPERSOLAR consortium consists of the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield and Southampton. All these Universities have well funded research groups in device development across the various PV technologies. The Hub is also strong in PV systems and module assessment. Each of these Universities has offered to provide additional resource to strengthen the consortium further, in some cases, even to include the creation of new academic posts.
SUPERSOLAR will establish an accredited cell efficiency performance facility for use by all UK academic and industrial groups. This facility is badly needed in the UK. The SUPERSOLAR research project will also focus on making step-change improvements to the transmitting conducting oxide (TCO) across all types of PV cell. This will also benefit all research groups since the performance of the TCO is crucial to the efficiency of thin film PV, dye sensitised Solar Cells and Organic PV.
An important impact for SUPERSOLAR will be the development of an active and connected academic and industrial PV community. We have agreed that the Energy Generation and Supply (EG&S) KTN will help deliver this. SUPERSOLAR will use the _connect portal to establish a dedicated group web site. This will deliver webinars and other web based information dissemination. The KTN will organize 10 events over its 5 year lifetime; 8 engagement events, 1 UK conference and 1 International Conference. The KTN will assist in the recruitment of new academic and industrial associates. Outreach to the wider community will use existing contacts with private sector event organizers such as SOLAR UK taking advantage of their massive subscription base (120,000 world-wide). An important goal for the Hub is to create a PV community in the UK that is inclusive and outward looking.
The world market for photovoltaics is experiencing extraordinary growth and it is important that UK industry seizes opportunities to grow its business in this sector. Maximising the number and spread of industrial (and financial) associates to the SUPERSOLAR network will be a high priority. The KTN will actively assist in building consortia of academic/industry or just industrial partnerships for collaborative research projects. It will encourage applied research through TSB collaborative projects. Best practice will be spread by training and two way academic-industrial secondments. Research results with technology potential will be protected and ways actively explored for commercial exploitation. SUPERSOLAR will aim to catalyse academic-business co-operation to maximize the exploitation of publicly funded research and grow PV related industry and employment.
SUPERSOLAR will have a high academic impact across the range of PV technologies. The drive towards device fabrication is key to this. All the groups in the SUPERSOLAR consortium already have well-funded platforms and an excellent record of publishing in leading journals. The proposed research on TCO's cuts across all of the technologies and will lead to cross-institutional collaborations which will add leverage to the expertise and facilities that exist already. SUPERSOLAR will be represented at all the major world conferences such as the EU PVSEC, e-MRS, MRS, SPIE and IEEE specialist photovoltaics meetings.