Professor Moritz Riede from the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford is one of 13 Green Future Fellows to receive landmark funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering. Some £39 million is going to the first such cohort to develop innovative solutions that tackle multiple causes of the climate crisis and mitigate and adapt to its impacts.
Achieving terawatt-scale organic photovoltaics
Professor Riede’s focus is on accelerating the commercialisation of organic photovoltaics (OPV) – thus providing clean energy anywhere in the world at a fraction of the environmental footprint of traditional solar panels. OPV are solar cells made from carbon-based earth abundant raw materials. They offer distinct advantages – they are lightweight, flexible and have tunable transmission – opening vast, untapped markets complementary to traditional solar panels such as for use on curved surfaces or in transparent glass facades. While OPV have exceeded 20% efficiency in the laboratory, commercial panels remain at around 8-9%.
Professor Riede will combine automation and machine learning into the first self-driving laboratory for vacuum-processed OPV to rapidly achieve more than 20% efficient OPV compatible with proven industrial scale manufacturing. This will accelerate OPV commercialisation supporting UK Net Zero goals, creating jobs and advancing a fair clean-energy transfer everywhere.
‘We know organic photovoltaics work very well in the lab,’ comments Professor Riede. ‘The challenge is achieving the same at scale in factories in a way that is both fast and affordable. That is what the climate urgency demands right now and that is what we are solving. Focusing on industrially relevant materials and proven processes, we want to be able to scale organic photovoltaics, the greenest most equitable form of solar energy reaching low-, middle- and high-income countries alike.’
Scaling ambitious ideas
The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Green Future Fellowships are funded by a £150 million, long-term investment from the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The fellows will use the funding to scale ambitious ideas and cutting-edge engineering over the next decade into commercially viable technologies capable of making a lasting impact on the climate crisis.
Joining Professor Riede as a Green Future Fellow at the University of Oxford is Associate Professor Robert House from the Department of Materials. Professor House has been awarded the fellowship for his work in developing a new type of battery that is four times more energy dense than current lithium-ion batteries making it ideal for electric or hybrid planes.