Professor Henry J Snaith has won this year's European Becquerel Prize for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics. Professor Snaith, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at University of Oxford spin-off Oxford PV received the award virtually at the opening of the annual edition of EU PVSEC 2020 on September 7, 2020.
He was selected for the award due to his significant contribution to the use of perovskite in solar cells, on both single-junction and multi-junction solar cells. His team is now getting ready to commercially launch the research work with the 1st product expected to be out in mid-2021.
The research institute has been working on perovskite tandem solar cell integrated with standard silicon solar cells to improve its performance. Oxford PV has placed a 100 MW silicon heterojunction solar cell production line order with Meyer Burger which is also a major shareholder in the company that is now getting full time into solar cell and module production.
"I am honored to receive this prestigious award. I am excited about the future of perovskite PV and its role in the clean energy transition. Perovskite PV has demonstrated its immense opportunity to transform solar energy generation," said Professor Snaith. "I'm especially looking forward to the next 12 months and seeing our first commercial perovskite-silicon solar product on the market."
Professor Snaith has received several other awards and distinctions. In 2013, the Nature journal named him among the top 10 people who mattered. He also heads the Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics Device Group in the Oxford University's Physics Department.
Last year, the largest international conference on photovoltaic research, EU PVSEC awarded Becquerel Prize 2019 to Professor Pierre Verlinden (see Dr Verlinden Selected For Becquerel Prize 2019).