Solar cell pioneer wins Millennium Technology Prize 2022
The Finnish Millennium Technology Prize is awarded to a technological innovation that improves quality of life and promotes sustainable development.
Professor Green and his team started working on the PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell) in 1983. Over the years it has become the most commercially viable and efficient silicon solar cell technology for use in solar panels and for large-scale electricity production, accounting for almost 90% of the global solar cell market.
His innovation has greatly reduced the costs of using solar panels, making solar energy more affordable than fossil-based alternatives.
Perovskite solar cells are being studied at Tampere University
Paola Vivo, Associate Professor (tenure track) specialized in Solar-Driven Chemistry, does research on perovskite solar cells (PSCs) at Tampere University.
“Despite being discovered only a few years ago, PSCs have already reached efficiencies exceeding 25%, almost equal to those of silicon-based solar cells after many decades of research,” Vivo says.
Now Vivo and her research group of 12 researchers are investigating new perovskite-inspired compositions with low-toxicity and high stability.
“We have developed several novel perovskite thin films and nanocrystals for various optoelectronic applications. We also managed to enhance the stability of perovskite solar cells by tuning the interface between perovskite and other constituents of the solar cell device,” she describes.
A new Solar-Driven Chemistry course organised in cooperation with Tampere University and ECIU has just started.There are also coming doctoral dissertations on perovskite nanocrystals and perovskite-like semiconductors for indoor photovoltaics in the near future.
Read Tampere University news on solar cell research.
The Millennium Prize is based on societal impact
The prize was announced in a gala in Helsinki on 25 Oct, 2022. The prize was awarded by the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö, the patron of the competition. The prize was last awarded in 2021 in a virtual gala to British professors Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman for developing a fast and inexpensive DNA sequencing technique.
Tampere University is an event partner of the Millennium Technology Prize 2022 and one of the university partners of the Millennium Innovation Forum.
Read more on Millennium Technology Prize website.
