"My satisfaction comes from knowing that I have contributed something that made a significant impact." – why solar energy will be our future, if there is one left.

Martin Green, Research Director of the Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Most of us know that we use too much dirty energy; too much energy produced using non-renewable coal, oil or gas. Most of us have heard that this energy consumption leads to irreversible devastation of the environment or at least to changes in the environment, e.g. global warming, that are significant enough to change our lives dramatically within the next few years. With a team of excellent scientists, Martin Green dedicated his career to providing us with an economically sensible alternative of solar energy. This is the only unlimited source that comes daily from the sun in huge amounts.
For the first two decades Martin focused on increasing the efficiency of the solar cells extremely successfully and his group gained a lot of international recognition. Today his focus lies on bringing down costs and becoming economically competitive even to energy production that does not - as most of today’s sources - include its environmental and social costs. After more than 30 years of research, Martin’s team finally developed a solar (photovoltaic) cell generation that is worth investing in and producing on a large scale.
Enjoy reading selected thoughts and statements of our discussion with Martin Green in the quotations below. You may be able to read more about him and his planned initiatives in our book “MyImpact”.

Martin Green’s selected quotations:
"I studied engineering; it was popular and I was good at maths. Most of us were excited by the growing field of micro-electronics but it did not seem the best place to use my knowledge and energy. I could see myself working on new generation TVs or other consumer devices. That was not an area I felt particularly passionate about."

"I came across photovoltaics in the late 60ies. This was a quite early stage for this technology. In the late 1970ies we managed a major breakthrough in improving the cell performance in terms of one specific parameter; in the 80ies we improved it overall."

"We gained some competitive advantage after the USA stopped their efforts in renewable energies under Reagan. They have not gone back to the 70ies research level since leaving a gap for us to become the worldwide leader."

"It has for a long time been my vision to make photovoltaic energy cost effective enough to be a real alternative to coal."

"Very early I saw the potential of solar energy in developing countries. My goal was to make the technology cheap enough before India and China expanded their energy usage. I guess unfortunately I missed that one."

"I definitely believe that efforts need to be taken to lower the CO2 emissions in the world. Solar seems like an area worth to focus energy supplies on."

“The energy reaching the earth from the sun in only three weeks equals the energy stored in all known reserves of fossil fuels on the earth. There is more than enough energy coming from the sun for all of our future needs.”

“The ongoing decrease in photovoltaic costs will accelerate the spread of the technology in the developing countries, where currently 2 billion people live without energy supply. A major challenge, however, is to develop the infrastructure needed to allow the financing, installation and maintenance of these systems.”

"My satisfaction comes from knowing that I have contributed something that made a significant impact. This feels much better than producing technical gadgets, believe me, and it motivates to continue as intensively as possible."

Some background on Martin Green:
Martin Green was born in Brisbane in 1948 and studied at the University of Queensland and McMaster University in Canada. He specialised in solar photovoltaics (PV). Green is currently a Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, and Research Director of the University’s Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence. He is also Research Director of CSG Solar, a company established specifically to commercialise the University's polycrystalline silicon thin-film on glass solar cell technology.
Professor Green is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He is the author of five books on solar cells, several book chapters, numerous reports and papers in international refereed journals in the area of semiconductor properties, microelectronics and solar cells.
Major international awards to Green include the IEEE William R. Cherry Award in 1990, the 1995 IEEE J.J.Ebers Award and the 1999 Australia Prize, which Green shared with his colleague and former student, Professor Stuart Wenham, for 'outstanding achievements in energy science and technology'. Green and Wenham's Buried Contact Solar Cells have dominated some of the major solar car races across the world over the past decade. The cells produce up to 30 per cent more energy than competing technologies, they are 20 per cent cheaper to produce, and they became the largest manufactured solar cell technology in Europe in the late 1990ies. Their cells also powered the homes in the Athletes' Village for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
In 2003 Martin Green received the honorary Right Livelihood Award for his life’s work, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Some background on the Photovoltaics Special Research Centre at the University of New South Wales:
The Photovoltaics Special Research Centre at the University of New South Wales has been a world leader in the development of solar cell technology since the early 1980s. In 1983, the Centre set a new world efficiency record for a silicon solar cell of 18%. For the first time, a silicon solar cell was able to convert 18% of the light energy falling onto its surface directly into electrical energy. Since then, the Centre has continued to improve on this record, taking it past 20% in 1985 and 24% in 1994. Along the way, the Centre has set numerous efficiency records for concentrator cells, polycrystalline cells and solar modules, as well as making significant contributions to the development of low- cost solar cell technology. The Centre's 'first generation' solar technology was licensed to BP Solar in 1985, since when its costs have reduced to a third and it has resulted in over US$300 million in sales, which will top US$1 billion by 2010. Green's 'second generation' technology, based on thin silicon films deposited on glass, is just into large-scale manufacture, offering the prospects of much cheaper solar electricity in the future. This technology, unlike some others, requires no toxic or rare materials.

If you would like to engage with the work of Martin Green or get to know more about the Photovoltaics Special Research Centre please visit www.pv.unsw.edu.au,
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.