The emergence of photovoltaic (PV) technologies based on thin-film semiconductor materials has been one of the most disruptive events in the field of solar energy for many years. While silicon dominates the solar market today, emerging semiconductors such as perovskites, organics and new compounds are seen as promising candidates for new applications in low cost and low embodied energy, spectrally tuned light harvesting. This potential is now underpinned by impressive laboratory-scale efficiencies (for example 19% for organic solar cells and > 25% for organohalide perovskites) achieved by sophisticated molecular engineering and a deep understanding of loss mechanisms.

The time has now come to drive these technologies into market adoption and certain ‘application targets’ such as agrivoltaics, space application, non-conventional and extreme environments and indoor light-harvesting for IoT seem ideal platforms to enable this adoption. This symposium endeavours to gather leading experts from around the world aiming to identify and describe application targets for next-generation photovoltaic devices. In this regard, the symposium will particularly focus on areas such as upscaling, stability/lifetime, state-of-the-art materials for photoactive layers and ancillary components, green solvent processing, new material processing and device fabrication techniques, upscaled device characterization and simulation, differences in device physics between standard solar illumination, and more bespoke conditions such as indoor lighting, and cost evaluation of technologically relevant ‘whole systems’.

organic perovskites polymer quantum materials solvent casting