Andrew Blakers FTSE FRSN is a Professor of renewable energy engineering at the Australian National University. [1] He has contributed to several innovations in solar photovoltaic technology, including PERC solar cells. Blakers has secured many research grants and won several awards.
Blakers founded the solar research group at ANU in 1991. It comprises about 60 staff and students who work on silicon, perovskite and tandem solar cells.
PERC solar photovoltaic technology is used in about 80% of solar panels deployed around the globe. Cumulative PERC solar panel sales are about US$130 billion. PERC solar panels are mitigating about 2% of global emissions through displacement of coal generation. [2]
Sliver Cell photovoltaic technology uses one tenth of the silicon used in conventional solar panels. Blakers invented the technology with colleague Prof Klaus Weber and developed it with funding from energy supplier Origin Energy and the Australian Research Council.
Blakers and colleagues work on 100% renewable energy futures. [3] This entails hour-by-hour modelling over decades of supply of energy (mostly from solar and wind) and demand for energy. Sufficient solar, wind, storage and transmission is added to the model to ensure sufficient supply of energy at all times. The levelized cost of a balanced 100% renewable energy system (dollars per Megawatt-hour) can then be calculated. National energy systems have been modeled for Australia, [4] Japan, [5] ASEAN, [6] Bolivia, [7] Indonesia [8] and other countries.
Blakers and colleagues have produced global atlases showing millions of off-river (closed loop) pumped hydro energy storage sites around the world that can be used to support 100% renewable energy. [9] [10]
Blakers, Martin Green, Jianhua Zhao and Aihua Wang won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2023 for development of the PERC solar cell.
Blakers, Matt Stocks and Bin Lu won the 2018 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research for work on 100% renewable energy futures.
Blakers was 2012 state finalist for the Australian of the year award, in the Australian Capital Territory.
Blakers and Klaus Weber won the 2007 Australian Institute of Physics' Walsh Medal for their solar research work.
Blakers and colleagues won the 2005 Banksia Award for Environmental Leadership in Infrastructure & Services.
Blakers is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Australian Institute of Physics, theAustralian Institute of Energy and the Royal Society of New South Wales. He is a life member of the International Solar Energy Society, the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Distributed generation, also distributed energy, on-site generation (OSG), or district/decentralized energy, is electrical generation and storage performed by a variety of small, grid-connected or distribution system-connected devices referred to as distributed energy resources (DER).
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost surplus off-peak electric power is typically used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power. Although the losses of the pumping process make the plant a net consumer of energy overall, the system increases revenue by selling more electricity during periods of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest. If the upper lake collects significant rainfall or is fed by a river then the plant may be a net energy producer in the manner of a traditional hydroelectric plant.
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors.
In the 19th century, it was observed that the sunlight striking certain materials generates detectable electric current – the photoelectric effect. This discovery laid the foundation for solar cells. Solar cells have gone on to be used in many applications. They have historically been used in situations where electrical power from the grid was unavailable.
A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect. It is a form of photoelectric cell, a device whose electrical characteristics vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as "solar panels". The common single-junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. The electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct current (DC) electricity, which can be used to power various devices or be stored in batteries. Solar panels are also known as solar cell panels, solar electric panels, or PV modules.
Martin Andrew Green is an Australian engineer and professor at the University of New South Wales who works on solar energy. He was awarded the 2021 Japan Prize for his achievements in the "Development of High-Efficiency Silicon Photovoltaic Devices". He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Progress in Photovoltaics.
Hybrid power are combinations between different technologies to produce power.
Renewable energy in Australia includes wind power, hydroelectricity, solar photovoltaics, heat pumps, geothermal, wave and solar thermal energy.
Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and solar tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight to a hot spot, often to drive a steam turbine.
A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system. It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system's overall performance and include an integrated battery.
100% renewable energy is the goal of the use renewable resources for all energy. 100% renewable energy for electricity, heating, cooling and transport is motivated by climate change, pollution and other environmental issues, as well as economic and energy security concerns. Shifting the total global primary energy supply to renewable sources requires a transition of the energy system, since most of today's energy is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels.
Crystalline silicon or (c-Si) Is the crystalline forms of silicon, either polycrystalline silicon, or monocrystalline silicon. Crystalline silicon is the dominant semiconducting material used in photovoltaic technology for the production of solar cells. These cells are assembled into solar panels as part of a photovoltaic system to generate solar power from sunlight.
Concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) is a photovoltaic technology that generates electricity from sunlight. Unlike conventional photovoltaic systems, it uses lenses or curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto small, highly efficient, multi-junction (MJ) solar cells. In addition, CPV systems often use solar trackers and sometimes a cooling system to further increase their efficiency.
Solar-cell efficiency refers to the portion of energy in the form of sunlight that can be converted via photovoltaics into electricity by the solar cell.
Photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering is an area of research, development, and demonstration in Australia. Two Australian Research Council Centres play a role.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to solar energy:
Floating solar or floating photovoltaics (FPV), sometimes called floatovoltaics, are solar panels mounted on a structure that floats on a body of water, typically a reservoir or a lake such as drinking water reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals or remediation and tailing ponds. A growing number of such systems exist in China, France, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the United States.
Soiling is the accumulation of material on light-collecting surfaces in solar power systems. The accumulated material blocks or scatters incident light, which leads to a loss in power output. Typical soiling materials include mineral dust, bird droppings, fungi, lichen, pollen, engine exhaust, and agricultural emissions. Soiling affects conventional photovoltaic systems, concentrated photovoltaics, and concentrated solar (thermal) power. However, the consequences of soiling are higher for concentrating systems than for non-concentrating systems. Note that soiling refers to both the process of accumulation, and the accumulated material itself.
Timeline of notable events in the research and development of sustainable energy, including renewable energy, solar energy, and nuclear fusion energy, particularly for ways that are sustainable within the Earth system.
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