ACAP Annual Report 2020 Annual ACAP Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics Annual Report 2020 Change & Change Innovation AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR ADVANCED PHOTOVOLTAICS UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 9385 4018 Email: [email protected] Website: acap.org.au Director: Scientia Professor Martin Green unsw.edu.au Acknowledgements Wrien and compiled by Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics Edited by Richard Corkish, Robert Largent, Supriya Pillai Photos, figures and graphs Courtesy of Centre sta, students and others Cover image A/Prof Xiaojing Hao, ACAP researcher and recipient of the 2020 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year Copyright © ACAP May 2021 Please note that the views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained within this report CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G Acknowledgements Wrien and compiled by Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics TABLE OF CONTENTS Edited by Richard Corkish, Robert Largent, Supriya Pillai Photos, figures and graphs 01 DIRECTOR'S REPORT 2 Courtesy of Centre sta, students and others 02 HIGHLIGHTS 4 Cover image A/Prof Xiaojing Hao, ACAP researcher and recipient of the 2020 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year 03 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND RESEARCH OVERVIEW 12 Copyright © ACAP May 2021 04 AFFILIATED STAFF AND STUDENTS 14 Please note that the views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government 05 RESEARCH REPORTS does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained Program Package 1 Silicon Solar Cells 20 within this report Program Package 2 Thin-Film, Third Generation and Hybrid Devices 36 CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G Program Package 3 Optics and Characterisation 68 Program Package 4 Manufacturing Issues 87 Program Package 5 Education, Training and Outreach 95 06 COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES Collaboration Grants 106 Fellowships 119 07 FINANCIAL SUMMARY 126 08 PUBLICATIONS 128 01 ACAP DIRECTOR'S REPORT Solar photovoltaics involves the generation of electricity directly from sunlight when this light shines upon solar cells packaged into a solar module. Silicon is the most common material used to make these photovoltaic cells, similarly to its predominant role in microelectronics, although several other photovoltaic materials are being actively investigated. With the devastating Australian bushfires followed by the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was a difficult and often tragic year for many. Photovoltaics, however, continued on a positive trajectory with record levels installed globally. Highlights were a marked change in attitude by the International Energy Agency (IEA), billing itself as “the world’s authority on energy” but with an appallingly poor past record in understanding solar’s likely impact. In the 2020 issue of the IEA’s flagship publication, the World Energy Outlook 2020, a marked change in emphasis is noted including the statement: “With sharp cost reductions over the past decade, solar PV is consistently cheaper than new coal- or gas-fired power plants in most countries, and solar projects now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen.” Under the banner of “Solar becomes the new king of electricity”, solar is projected to account for most new electricity generation out to 2040, despite the IEA still underestimating likely installation rates by a huge margin. Another 2020 highlight has been the global manufacturing industry’s almost complete adoption of UNSW PERC cell technology, where PERC stands for “passivated emitter and rear cell”, conceived and perfected at UNSW in the 1980s and 1990s. Over 90% of global production in 2020 was PERC-based, up from almost zero per cent in 2015. ACAP played a key role in this transition, the most significant in the industry over the last 40 years, through the hydrogenation work initiated and led by the late Professor Stuart Wenham. PERC has led to a new surge in solar cost reductions not only through the increased energy conversion efficiency it offers but also through its increased functionality. This includes bifacial operation at low cost, boosting system output by 5–20% via light incident on the rear of solar modules, and large-wafer compatibility, due to the rear patterning required with PERC allowing cutting into smaller cells after fabrication. Larger wafers have led to a push to larger module sizes over the past few years, reducing assembly, transportation and installation costs. Australia leads the world in rooftop solar installations. The lead in small systems (<100 kW) was increased during 2020 with an additional 3 gigawatts installed during the year, a 40% increase over 2019, the previous record year, with a similar increase in large commercial systems. Solar’s contribution to electricity generation in the Australian National Electricity Market increased to 9.7% averaged over 2020, likely to exceed 12% average in 2021. Even more importantly, this strong solar contribution has significantly improved the power network’s ability to meet peaks in electricity demand during summer heatwaves, where solar is proving much more reliable than conventional coal generators, whether new or aging. Also, on the international front, annual global photovoltaic installations increased to a new record of 145 gigawatts installed in 2020, according to market analysts. Photovoltaics also reinforced its position as one of the lowest cost options for electricity production yet developed, with wholesale module selling prices dropping 16% from 2019 averaged over the year. The lowest bid for the long-term supply of solar via a power purchase agreement decreased to US$13.12/MWh in August 2020. In breaking news as this report goes to press, this figure was reduced to US$10.40/MWh in early 2021, or an incredible US 1 cent/kWh, in normal household units! Australia has played a major role in achieving these very low costs and is expected to play a key role in future cost reductions through the ongoing activities of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), documented in this 2020 Annual Report. 2 ACAP ANNUAL REPORT 2020 This is the eighth annual ACAP report, with ACAP activities supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). ACAP aims to significantly accelerate photovoltaic development by leveraging development of “over the horizon” photovoltaic technology, providing a pipeline of improved technology for increased performance and ongoing cost reduction. A second aim is to provide high quality training opportunities for the next generation of photovoltaic researchers, with one targeted outcome being to consolidate Australia’s position as the photovoltaic research and educational hub of the Asia-Pacific manufacturing region. In achieving these aims, ACAP works with a wide range of both local and international partners. ACAP came into being on 1 February 2013 after the signing of a Head Agreement between the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and ARENA. During 2013, related Collaboration Agreements were signed between UNSW and the other ACAP nodes, Australian National University (ANU), University of Melbourne (UoM), Monash University, University of Queensland (UQ) and CSIRO (Materials Science and Engineering, Melbourne) and, additionally, with the ACAP industrial partners, Suntech Research and Development, Australia (SRDA) (partnership now transferred to Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd), Trina Solar Ltd, BlueScope Steel and BT Imaging, and subsequently with PV Lighthouse, Greatcell Pty Ltd and RayGen Resources Pty Ltd. Our major international partners include the NSF-DOE Engineering Research Center for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST), based at Arizona State University, and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), as well as the Molecular Foundry, Berkeley, Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Korean Green Energy Institute. SCIENTIA PROFESSOR MARTIN GREEN Director, ACAP 3 02 2020 HIGHLIGHTS OUTSTANDING CELL EFFICIENCY RESULTS Dr Jianjun Li, Dr Jialiang Huang, Dr Germain Rey, Dr Kaiwen Sun, Professor Xiaojing Hao and Professor Martin Green, from the UNSW A team at ANU, led by Dr Jun Peng and including A/Professor node, partnered with collaborators at Jinan University, Shenzhen Thomas White, Dr Daniel Walter, Mike Tebyetekerwa, Dr Yiliang Wu, University, East China Normal University and Central South University Dr The Duong, Dr Teng Lu, Dr Md Arafat Mahmud, Dr Olivier Lee achieved an independently confirmed 12.5%, a new record efficiency Cheong Lem, Shenyou Zhao, Professor Yun Liu, Dr Heping Shen, for pure selenide CZTSe solar cells. This work was noted in the Dr Li, Dr Felipe Kremer, Dr Hieu T. Nguyen, A/Professor Duk-Yong 2019 ACAP Annual Report and it was published in 2020 (Adv. Mater. Choi, Professor Klaus J. Weber and Professor Kylie Catchpole, in 2020, 32, 2005268). Current state-of-the-art devices experience collaboration with Sun Yat-Sen University and the Shanghai Institute cation-disordering defects and defect clusters, which result in severe of Microsystem and Information Technology achieved a certified potential fluctuation, low minority carrier lifetime, and unsatisfactory power conversion efficiency of 21.6% for a 1 cm2 cell with fill factor performance. The team found a way to effectively suppress of 0.839. Polymer passivation