Research Projects

Horizon Europe

PV4Plants – AgriPV System with Climate, Water and Light Spectrum Control for Safer and Healthier Crop Production

PV4Plants is a research and innovation project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme. Running from 2023 to 2026, the project aims to develop next-generation agrivoltaic (AgriPV) systems that enable the simultaneous production of renewable electricity and agricultural crops on the same land.

Agrivoltaics provides a promising pathway to address the growing competition between land use for energy production and agriculture. PV4Plants explores how photovoltaic systems can be designed to support plant growth while generating electricity, creating integrated energy-agriculture solutions that improve overall land-use efficiency.

The project combines expertise in photovoltaic technologies, plant physiology, materials science, and digital monitoring systems to optimise the microclimate beneath photovoltaic panels. By controlling parameters such as light transmission, spectral composition, temperature, and water use, the PV4Plants system aims to enhance crop productivity and resilience while maintaining efficient solar energy generation.

A key technological contribution to the project is provided by Yıldız Technical University, which develops glass-based colour-converting materials (GCCs) for spectrum-engineered agrivoltaic systems. These advanced luminescent glass materials modify the spectral composition of sunlight transmitted through photovoltaic modules, enabling improved light conditions for plant growth while preserving photovoltaic performance. The technology represents an innovative approach to integrating spectral engineering with agrivoltaic system design.

The PV4Plants technologies are being validated through pilot installations in different climatic regions across Europe, generating real-world data on crop growth, microclimate regulation, and system performance. Through this multidisciplinary collaboration, the project contributes to the development of sustainable agricultural systems, renewable energy integration, and climate-resilient food production.

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Time period: 2023-2026

Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership)

poweR gEneration From perOvskite aRchitectural eleMents (REFORM)

REFORM is a research and innovation project funded under the Clean Energy Transition Partnership Joint Call 2022 (TRI7: Integration in the Built Environment).

The project focuses on the development of perovskite-based building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technologies that enable architectural elements to generate electricity. In dense urban environments, rooftop space alone is often insufficient for large-scale solar deployment. REFORM therefore explores how façades and other building surfaces can be transformed into active energy-generating components using advanced perovskite photovoltaic materials.

REFORM combines expertise in materials science, photovoltaic device engineering, architectural design, and industrial manufacturing to develop scalable and aesthetically compatible BIPV solutions. The project investigates device fabrication processes, integration strategies, and architectural concepts that enable seamless incorporation of photovoltaic technologies into buildings while maintaining structural and visual quality.

Through this multidisciplinary approach, the project aims to support the development of climate-neutral buildings and urban environments, contributing to Europe’s transition toward sustainable and locally generated renewable energy.

The consortium includes academic and industrial partners from across Europe:

• Universitat de València (Coordinator)

• ODTÜ Güneş Enerjisi Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi

• Optitune Oy

• PES-Architects Ltd.

• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

• Türkiye Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları A.Ş.

• Yıldız Technical University

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Time period: 2023-2026

1001 Tubitak - The Scientific and Technological Research Projects Funding Program

Development of Dual Quantum Dot-Doped Glass Nanocomposite-Based Luminescent Solar Concentrators 

Increasing global energy consumption, rapidly depleting natural resources and their environmental hazards have shifted the focus on renewable energy resources. Solar energy is peerless due to its high potentiality resulting from its unlimited power and compatibility with clean, compact, and mobile systems because of being independent from location and seasons. Even though solar energy offers numerous advantageous properties, it could have not possessed the expected market share among all renewable energy resources due to high price/performance ratio of solar cells. Energy efficiency values of the materials used in existing solar cells have reached their theoretical limits. Therefore, luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) step forward as a promising solution to increase the energy conversion efficiency of photovoltaic systems by decreasing the unit area of solar cells and increasing the number of useful incident photons. To date, LSCs have been developed by incorporating organic dyes into polymer matrices or by synthesizing luminescent substances through wet chemistry methods and combining these materials with solar cells in different configurations. However, these approaches were not successful to step outside of laboratories due to insufficient thermal, chemical, and mechanical resistance along with poor luminescent properties. These drawbacks have triggered studies on the development of alternative host/waveguide materials. Herein, QD-doped glass nanocomposites (GNCs) step forward due to simple synthesis process and machinability, suitability for high scale production and high recyclability along with superior durability and optical properties. There exists no study focusing on the development of GNC-based LSCs and investigation of their synergy with photovoltaic systems in terms of energy conversion efficiency. The aim of this project is to develop GNC-based LSCs with high optical transmittance, high refractive index, high photo resistivity along with convenience for long term use in harsh outdoor conditions via high thermal, chemical, and mechanical resistivity and to evaluate the potential of GNC-based LSCs for practical applications by investigating their effect on energy conversion efficiency of photovoltaic systems.

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Time period: 2022-2025

2537 Tubitak - CAS bilateral cooperation project

Full-color tunable emission of lanthanide-doped monolithic glasses upon single beam irradiation for laser-based volumetric displays

The human stereoscopic vision is able to perceive the depth information in a three-dimensional (3D) world. However, dominant display technologies of today rely on two-dimensional displays and do not harness the true power of human vision system. 3D imaging is one of the most demanded technologies for various fields such as, medicine, engineering, architecture, education, and military. Different approaches such as head mounted (virtual reality) and stereoscopic displays have been developed and released as commercial products in order to overcome the fundamental restriction of current 2D imaging technologies. These approaches are suitable only for some of the applications and suffer from a number of drawbacks such as limited observation area, uncomfortable head gear causing eye fatigue, single-user access at a time, and requirement of high-end computing power. As a developing approach, laser-based volumetric displays (VD) exploiting high brightness and mono-chromaticity of lasers stand out as a promising 3D display technology due to a wide field of view for multiple users at a time, high spatial resolution, smooth dynamic imagery, vivid color rendering and ease of application capabilities. So far none of the proposed screen materials for laser-based VDs were able to meet the crucial set of required parameters for 3D displays. Special glasses emerge as promising materials due to outstanding properties such as, high optical transmittance, high thermal and chemical stability, high lanthanide solubility, high optical damage threshold, low phonon energy that enables the enhancement of up-conversion emission, ease of large scale production and superior mechanical resistance. In this project, we propose to investigate lanthanide-doped monolithic glasses possessing tunable full color emission feature under single beam irradiation by novel excitation modulation technique and ultimate implementation of these glasses as laser-based volumetric display. 

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Time period: 2021-2023

2553 Tubitak - PSF bilateral cooperation project

Investigation the effect of different plasmonic structure geometries on upconversion efficiency enhancement of RE activated metallic nanoparticles (RE-UCNPs) 

Rare-earth activated upconverting nanoparticles (RE-UCNPs) are recently coming into light for their potential applications such as bioimaging and photovoltaics due to their excellent chemical and spectral properties. However, RE-UCNPs usually suffer from low upconversion emission efficiency owing to the small absorption cross sections induced by the forbidden transitions between 4f orbitals of the REs. Therefore, the upconverting materials synthesized till today remain too inefficient for viable implementation. For instance, the quantum yield of the extensively studied β-NaYF4 nano crystals codoped with Yb3+ and Er3+ is usually below 1%. In this project, the co-doped β-NaYF4:17%Yb3+/3%Er3+ RE-UCNPs will be synthesized using hydro(solvo)-thermal route. Au nanoparticles will be formed via electron beam lithography in four different geometries (rectangular, elliptical, triangular and spherical disks) with different sizes (1000-50nm) and mutual separations (250-50nm). β-NaYF4:17%Yb3+/3%Er3+ solutions will then be spin-coated on the substrate with prefabricated gold plasmonic structures having different geometries to obtain plasmon enhanced RE-UCNPs. The UC emission spectra, dependence of the UC emission intensity on the pumping laser power, effect of the addition and the geometry of plasmonic structures on the luminescence efficiency and color quality parameters will be evaluated. The overall luminescence efficiency enhancement rates will be determined. These findings can benefit not only the use of upconversion luminescence for renewable energy and biological applications but can also have important implications for improving other fluorescence and excitonic systems like organic and other excitonic solar cells.

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Time period: 2019-2022

Tubitak 3501 - Career development program (CAREER) project

Investigation of quantum dot and rare earth element co-doping effect on luminescence and color properties of tellurite nanocomposite glasses for high luminous efficiency white LEDs  

Nowadays, the development of high efficiency lighting technologies has gained importance as a result of increasing energy demand. The wide spread of solid-state lighting technology is of great importance to reduce significantly the global electricity consumption. Thereby, white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) have attracted significant interest due to their numerous advantages including longer lifetime, high luminous efficiency and lower power consumption over the traditional fluorescent, halogen, and incandescent lighting. Currently, WLEDs are fabricated by the combination of UV/blue LED chips with suitable luminescent yellow phosphors. Normally, phosphor is coated on LED chip with epoxy resin, but the resin degrades due to the raise in its temperature by the long-term irradiation, thereby the lifetime of the LED is being reduced. The way-out to improve the lifespan of LEDs is using the rare earth doped glasses and glass ceramics instead of powder phosphors. Studies showed that rare earth doped tellurite glasses show promising features for WLEDS, but their luminous efficiency and color properties are still need to be improved. Therefore, the aim of this project is to investigate the quantum dot (QD) and rare earth element co-doping effect on luminescence and color properties QD size and evaluate their potential for WLED applications.

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Time period: 2017-2020