Photovoltaic (PV) technology is essential in sustainable energy transition, with innovative materials and configurations being key for its expansion. This symposia focuses on emerging PV technologies such as Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs), Organic Photovoltaics (OPV), Dye- Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC), Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS), antimony sulfide (SbS), silver bismuth sulfide (AgBiS), multijunction cells, and concentrated solar cells, emphasizing the need for sustainable materials.
Topics includes substrate choices between rigid, flexible, and hybrid materials, each offering distinct advantages in application adaptability and integration. Encapsulation strategies for enhancing operational stability and extending device lifespan are critical for the advancements that mitigate environmental degradation.
Further exploration covers the robustness and durability essential for long-term applications of emerging PV technologies. Unconventional applications such as Building-Applied Photovoltaics (BAPV), Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), agrivoltaic systems, floating PV installations, indoor PV solutions, and space-based solar power are examined for their transformative potential in energy infrastructures and green building practices.
Finally, the push for sustainability leads to the exploration of lead-free perovskites, indium-free devices, and carbon-based electrodes, promising reduced environmental impact and enhanced applicability in diverse environments.
- Emerging PV: PSCs, OPV, DSSC CZTS, SbS, AgBiS, multijunction cells, concentrated solar cells
- Substrate choice: rigid, flexible or hybrid
- Encapsulation strategy
- Device stability and durability
- Unconventional application (BAPV, BIPV, Agrivoltaic, Floating PV, Indoor PV, Space)
- Sustainable materials (lead free perovskite, Indium free device, carbon based electrodes)
Luigi Angelo Castriotta is a post-Doctoral fellow from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, focusing on flexible perovskite solar cells and modules. He joined Prof. Huang's group at UNC (USA) in June 2023, as a Global Marie-Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow and as a Principal Investigator of the "EFESO" Project. He got his Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering in 2021 from University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) as a Marie-Curie Fellow as part of the Innovative Training Network MAESTRO; He did his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) and Masters’ in "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology" at Universitat de Barcelona (Spain) and in "Organic Molecular Electronics" at Technische Universitat Dresden (Germany).
After her PhD degree in Telecommunications and Microelectronics Engineering on flexible dye solar cells, awarded by University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ in 2014, Dr De Rossi spent nearly 4 years abroad, working as a Technology Transfer Fellow in SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre at Swansea University (UK). She was part of the PV team led by Prof T.M. Watson, focusing on the upscaling of printable perovskite solar cells, and lead of the stability activity within his group.
She is currently a fixed term researcher (RTDa) in the group led by Prof F. Brunetti, working on smart designed, fully printed flexible perovskite solar cells and photocapacitors.
Erkan Aydın is leading the “Aydin Group” in the Chemistry Department of LMU Munich. His research group is focusing on the development of “realistic ultra-efficient tandem photovoltaic solutions for earth and space applications“ by currently prioritizing multijunction solar cells, specifically perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells and all-perovskite tandem solar cells. Erkan Aydın obtained his PhD (2016) degree from the Micro and Nanotechnology Program at TOBB ETU (University of Economics and Technology) in 2016 and he pursued his postdoctoral research at the KAUST for seven and half years before establishing his team at LMU Munich. His extensive work at KAUST led to several record-breaking efficiencies in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells. Erkan Aydın is the principal investigator of the INPERSPACE ERC StG Project.
Dr. Clara Aranda Alonso, received her doctorate degree in Science from University Jaume I in 2019 at the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM) (Castellón, Spain). She worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and Institute for Photovoltaics (ipv) at the University of Stuttgart (Germany) for two years. Then she moved to the Institute of Materials Science (ICMUV) at the University of Valencia (Spain) as a Margarita Salas fellow. Currently, she is working at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville (Spain). Her work is focused on the synthesis and characterization of wide band gap perovskite materials, both in thin film and single crystal configuration, for photoconversion devices such as solar cells, photodetectors and memristors, using impedance spectroscopy as the main characterization tool.
Prof. Marina Freitag is a Professor of Energy and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Newcastle University. She is developing new light-driven technologies that incorporate coordination polymers to solve the most important challenges in the research area, including issues of sustainability, stability and performance of hybrid PV. The development of such highly innovative concepts has given Marina international recognition, including recipient of the prestigious 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize 2022.
Her research into hybrid molecular devices, began during her doctoral studies (2007-2011, Rutgers University, NJ, USA) where she was awarded an Electrochemical Society Travel Award and Dean Dissertation Fellowship 2011. Dr Freitag moved to Uppsala University (2013-2015) for a postdoctoral research position, which focused on the implementation of alternative redox mediators, leading to a breakthrough today known as “zombie solar cells”. Dr Freitag was invited to further develop this work at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) with Prof. Anders Hagfeldt ( 2015-2016). From 2016-2020 she was appointed as Assistant Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, where she received the Göran Gustaffsson Young Researcher Award 2019.
Dr. Edgardo Saucedo studied Chemical Engineering at the University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay, and received his PhD in Materials Physic at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain in 2007 with a FPU fellowship. In 2007, he joined the Institut de Recherche et Développement sur l’Énergie Photovoltaïque IRDEP (Paris, France), with a CNRS associated Researcher fellowship, working in the development and optoelectronic characterization of CIGS low cost based solar cells. In 2009, he joined NEXCIS, a spin-off created from IRDEP, to further pursue their training in photovoltaic technology. In 2010, he joined the Solar Energy Materials and SystemsGroup at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) under a Juan de la Cierva Fellowship first (2010-2011) and a Ramon y Cajal Fellowship afterwards (2012-2016), with the aim to develop new low cost materials and processes for thin film photovoltaic devices. In 2020 he joined the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) to continuous his scientific and professorhip career.
He holds five patents and has authored or co-authored more than 215 papers in recognized international journals, including: Energy and Environmental Science, Advanced Materials, Adv. Energy Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Chemistry of Materials, Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, NanoEnergy, J. Mater. Chem. A, J. Phys. Chem. C, etc. He has more than 350 contributions to the most important Congresses in Physics, Chemistry and Materials, and more than 35 invited talks around the world. He has been involved in more than 25 European and Spanish Projects (Scalenano, Inducis, Pvicokest, KestPV, Larcis, etc.), and he was the Coordinator of the ITN Marie Curie network Kestcell (www.kestcells.eu), the research and innovation project STARCELL (www.starcell.eu), and the RISE project INFINITE-CELL (www.infinite-cell.eu), three of the most important initiatives in Europe for the development of Kesterites. In 2019 he was granted with an ERC-Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (SENSATE, 866018, 2020-2025), for the development of low dimensional materials for solar harvesting applications to be developed at UPC. Currently he is also the scientific coordinator of the European project SUSTOM-ART (952982), for the industrialization of kesterite for BIPV/PIPV applications.
He is frequently chairman and invited speakers in the most relevant Conferences in Photovoltaic (E-MRS, MRS, IEEE-PVSC, EUPVSEC, European Kesterite Workshop, etc.). He has supervised 11 PhD Thesis and is currently supervising 5 more. He has an h factor of 38 and more than 5000 citations. In 2020 he has been awarded with the ASEVA-Toyota Award for his contribution to the development of sustainable photovoltaic technologies using vacuum techniques (https://aseva.es/resolucion-de-los-primeros-premios-nacionales-de-ciencia-y-tecnologia-de-vacio-aseva-toyota/).
Dr. Roberto Speranza is a postoctoral researcher at Politechnic of Turin where he obtained his Ph.d. in Electronic Engineering with a thesis entitled "Integrated Energy Harvesting and Storage Systems for a Sustainable Future". His main research interest are design, fabrication, and characterization of electrochemical technologies for energy harvesting and storage. Third-generation photovoltaic cells, with a focus on photoelectrochemical cells like dye-sensitized solar cells. Characterization and optimization of photovoltaic devices under non-standard illumination conditions (artificial lighting, indoor environments). Supercapacitors and their direct integration with photovoltaic technologies. Fabrication and characterization of photo-capacitors for direct energy harvesting and storage from natural and artificial light sources. Production and characterization of nanostructured materials for electrochemical devices. Polymer electrolytes.