Chairperson’s message
Dear SiliconPV Friends,
Last year was special with both positive and negative aspects. In 2022 we were able to hold SiliconPV together with nPV and bifiPV on site and in a hybrid way. It was great to meet so many PV colleagues in person again and also being able to connect with the colleagues participating online. For the 2023 edition we will use the same format and the conference will be hybrid again.
Negative aspects are still the uncertain COVID19 situation, the climate change, and the geopolitical issues which have impact on the global society. Therefore it is becoming more and more important to enhance the energy transition and develop technologies that will be available for everyone and everywhere, have low cost, and can be manufactured locally. PV is the technology to hasten the energy transition and it can be done big, already now, and in the future with much better technologies. Compared to the current commercial PV technologies conversion efficiencies can be doubled by applying multijunction PV, prices can be reduced by another factor two to three, PV can be fully integrated in every surface, and its environmental impact can be minimized by using earth abundant and non-toxic materials only and by full recyclability. PV already met an important milestone in March 2022 to show its potential: the total globally installed PV capacity reached 1 TWp (DC)!
To speed up the energy transition and reduce dependency on other continents, the EU announced new targets for PV with 320 GWp cumulative installed capacity in 2025 and 600 GWp installed capacity in 2030; a huge increase! Furthermore, many initiatives to re-start manufacturing PV in Europe are ongoing and plans for multi-GW factories have been made or are already being implemented. The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has proposed at least 35 GWp manufacturing of PV in the EU by 2025 and 100 GWp manufacturing by 2030. The latter will correspond to about 15% of the global market.
To reach these ambitious goals as well as meeting the climate goals of 2050, technology development will be crucial. An efficiency of 35.9% was obtained by Fraunhofer ISE in 2021 with a hybrid multijunction solar cell consisting of a III-V top and middle cell combined with a silicon bottom cell. Recently 31.25% has been announced by EPFL/CSEM for a perovskite-silicon tandem demonstrating that efficiencies beyond 30% can be reached with low-cost materials and processing; another important milestone and confirming the huge progress made so far!
I am looking forward to hearing the latest results on novel technologies and therefore you are invited to share your results by submitting abstracts and presenting them during the conference. Like previous years, your contribution can be published in a regular journal to ensure global visibility. The conference topics cover the value chain from materials up to and including modules and cover aspects such as reliability, sustainability and circularity. Of course the progress made with tandems and multijunction PV devices with silicon bottom cells will have a prominent position in the conference programme.
Like previous editions, the nPV workshop will be coupled to SiliconPV with an overlapping day in the middle. The whole inspiring event will take place at the campus of Delft University of Technology, which is walking distance from the historical city center.
Looking forward to meeting you in person in Delft or online for the SiliconPV 2023 conference!
Arthur Weeber, Chairman SiliconPV 2023
