Northumbria Photovoltaics
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Overview
Northumbria University Photovoltaics (NUPV) is a research group focused on developing new materials and devices for efficient, sustainable conversion of energy from sunlight. Our works spans a broad range of materials from polycrystalline thin films potentially suitable for TW electricity generation as well as the manufacture of novel devices. Key drivers for our work are increasing efficiency, cost reduction, sustainability and exploiting performance benefits afforded by semiconductor nanostructures. Our approach is highly collaborative and we work across a broad spectrum of academic and industrial collaborators.
News
Inaugural Lecture January 2022
Prof Neil Beattie gave an inaugural lecture earlier this month. Watch the full presentation here.
PVSAT and EMRS 2021
Prof Neil Beattie gave an overview on our manufacturing research of thin film solar cells at the recent EMRS and PVSAT conference.
July 2021
We've been busy interviewing for a research fellow this week as part of EPSRC funded SolPV. Exciting to expand the group further!
ECATSS Summary
Summary presentation of our ECATSS project as part of NECEM
NU-FAB
NUPV has been awarded a new grant from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership to increase our manufacturing capability called, Northumbria University Fabrication or NU-FAB. The aim of the programme is to create a facility which allows researchers from academia and industry to rapidly protoype devices and components for sustainable energy. Please see this press release if you are interested in learning more.
Processing solar cells at the nano-scale
NUPV has just performed the first solar cell annealing step to take place inside a transmission electron microscope. This allowed us to identify an annealing protocol which was transferred to an industrially-similar process to improve the performance. The technique can be applied to any solar cell requiring thermal annealing and you can read about it in ACS Applied Energy Materials.
New staff
Since the beginning of the year we have welcomed 3 new Vice Chancellor fellows. Dr Devendra Tiwari has join us from Bristol, Dr Oliver Hutter from Liverpool and Dr Giulia Longo from Oxford. More details to follow.
PhD Success
Stephen defended his thesis at the end of February and the panel has recommended the award of PhD after minor corrections. His thesis, Spectroscopy of Cu2ZnSnS4 nanoparticle inks and Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 solar cells, focus on the back and front interfaces in CZTSSe. Stephen is staying within the team and is starting a Research Fellow position focusing on Sb2Se3 as part of NECEM flex fund project "Nanoscale Interfacial Engineering of Antimony-based Absorber Material for PV Applications".
Staffing update
Dr Qu has been appointed as ReNU's centre manager and will start in September. Yongtao has been with us since 2012 first as a PhD student and then a research fellow. This position will allow Yongtao to develop as an independent researcher and become a rounded academic.
After successfully defending her thesis last spring and graduating earlier this summer, Xinya has been appointed as research fellow to develop the annealing and printing processes as part of a new EPSRC funding project: Photovoltaic Paint (EP/T005491/1 ). Dr Xu will start on 02 September 2019.
Best of luck to both!
PhD successes
Congratulations to both Stephen and Zahra who defended their thesis earlier this summer. Stephen's PhD was on understanding the properties of SnS thin films in combination with doping and alloying as well as the impact of the buffer layer on the pn-junction. On the other hand Zahra focused on the development of 3D nanostructures for improving light collection in extremely thin absorbers.
Well done to both!
NECEM Conference
The team attended the recent NECEM's International Conference on Energy Materials and Interfaces in July. It was a great scientific program from across the energy sector with scintillating talks and presentations.
Yongtao, Stephen N, Nik and Neil presented their latest work and Bethan and Stephen C offered poster presentation.
Stephen C was awarded the "Chemical Science" poster prize by the organisers.
NUPV article in Physics World
Dr Neil Beattie from NUPV has written an opinion piece in Physics World. It reviews the political and economic contexts for energy materials over the last two decades and offers insights for researchers working in this area. The article can be found at this link:
https://physicsworld.com/a/can-crude-analysis-alone-determine-prospects-for-energy-materials/
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Renewable Energy Northeast Universities (ReNU)
NUPV is pleased to announce the award of £5.2M from EPSRC to create ReNU which will train the next generation of specialists in small scale renewable and sustainable distributed energy over the next 5-8 years. NUPV played a leading role in this bid and further details may be found here.
New Impact Publication
NUPV has produced a short brief to describe some of the work relating to nanoparticle inks. See our impact page or read the article.
EMRS 2018 Strasbourg
NUPV PhD students presented their latest results at the European Materials Research Society spring meeting in Strasbourg in June. An excellent experience in the heart of Europe and thanks to the conference organisers!
UK PVSAT 2018
Working with NUPV and Liverpool University, The Centre for Solar Energy Research (CSER) from Swansea University was awarded the Best Paper award for the work on group V doping of CdTe at the last PVSAT conference held at Imperial College.
May '18 NECEM Seminar
Dr Guillaume Zoppi gave an overview of NUPV's research into nanocrystals ink for photovoltaics at Newcastle University for the 3rd NECEM seminar (16/05/18)
March '18 NUPV hosts 2nd NECEM seminar
Dr Natasha Shirshova (Durham) gave the second NCEM seminar on Structural energy storage composite supercapacitors (23rd March 18). More details available on the NECEM page.
March '18 NECEM Launch
The North East Centre for Energy Materials (NECEM) was officially launched on 16th March 2018. This research colloboration between Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities will run until spring 2021. Read about it here.
January '18 Photonics West Conference
NUPV presented an oral presentation Quantum Engineering InAs/GaAs Single Junction Concentrator Solar Cells in SPIE Conference 10527: Physics, Simulation and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices VII.
Always a pleasure to return to San Francisco! Thanks also to the conference organizers, scientific committee and conference Chair.
December '17 Research Visit to Nanyang Technological University
Dr Beattie visited collaborators at the School of Materials Science and Engineering to perform solar cell experiments and exchange knowledge. NUPV is grateful to all the team at NTU for making this a successful visit and we look forward to more collaboration in the future.
24 November 2017: NECEM press release
8 November 2017: NECEM in the the news!
1 October 2017: The North East Centre for Energy Materials (NECEM) officially launched! Full details on the NECEM webite.
PVSEC-27
Dr Qu recently attended PVSEC-27 in Japan and gave a talk on his latest research: a compartive study of ligands in Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 solar cell prepared from nanoparticle inks. He also took the opportunity to visit Prof Minemoto's laboratory and learn the trade in high efficiency thin film devices.
Quantsol 2017
Xinya attended this year's Summer School on Photovoltaics and New Concepts of Quantum Solar Energy Conversion in in Hirschegg, Austria .
EU PVSEC 2016 @ Munich
Usha and Arezoo attended this year European PV conference held in Munich. Usha presented a poster entitled "A quantum engineering approach to voltage preservation in intermediate band solar cells" and Arezoo gave a talk on her work "Sodium Induced Microstructural Changes in MOCVD Grown CdTe Thin Films ".
Arezoo Amirkhalili: “I believe EU PVSEC 2016 was a great platform to discuss the most recent and relevant developments in PV technologies. This unique conference that took place in Munich, Germany from 20th to 24th of June is the largest international conference for PV research, technology and applications. I was given the opportunity to give an oral presentation on my current work in CdTe thin films, which was a thrilling experince. Also, I was lucky enough to attend InterSolar Exhibition that took place at the same time, to explore the top international PV industries. EU PVSEC was an amazing opportunity to meet with some old colleagues and lecturers, make new connections and spread awareness about my research at Northumbria University.”
