Professor Andres Cuevas from the Australian National University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science has been awarded the 2015 Becquerel Prize for his work on the development of silicon solar cells.
Cuevas is one of the pioneers in the development of bifacial silicon solar cells and contributed significantly to the development of high-efficiency silicon solar cells. He helped determine and model the most important properties of silicon solar cells including Auger recombination, bulk defect characterisation, emitter properties, and detailed characterisation of types of surface passivation. His work on characterisation of carrier lifetime parameters contributed considerably to the development of widely-used key measurement methods like the quasi‐steady‐state photoconductance method.
Cuevas has 40 years experience in the field of photovoltaics and has been at ANU since 1993 after previous positions at the University of Madrid and Stanford University.
He said when he first started working in the field, solar cells were so expensive, people thought they would never become mainstream, but now it has the potential to provide energy to the world.
"I have tried to contribute to the field in a direct way that industry can use, that the whole of the research community can learn from," Cuervas said.
"Having access to this technology could change life so significantly for those 1.3 billion people around the world who have no electricity."
The prize was established in 1989 by the European Commission to honour scientific, technical or managerial merit in the development of photovoltaic solar energy, attained over a long period. Cuevas will accept the award in Germany on September 14.
Photo: Stuart Hay, ANU