Research

The SUNRISE network has united research teams specialising in renewable energy technology from across the UK and Global South. While our stated goal is to “revolutionise solar energy,” some of our researchers will be developing additional technologies necessary for a complete sustainable energy system suitable for a rural Indian community, such as energy storage and biomass fuels. Ultimately, this research will be applied in a series of building demonstrators (read more here).

While the research outputs are themselves important, of greater significance will be the capacity growth of our researchers and institutions. At SUNRISE we want to enable further advancements in sustainable technologies across the globe so that our legacy lasts long beyond the lifetime of the project.

Read on to find out more about our research areas: photovoltaics, energy storage and lighting, and clean fuel technologies.

A key goal of the SUNRISE researchers is to develop low-cost, efficient solar cells. Most photovoltaic (PV) systems are made up of several solar cells containing a semiconducting material such as silicon. Our investigators however will be focusing on printed perovskite and organic PV technologies, particularly flexible, lightweight systems. Because it is made using low-cost, earth abundant materials, organic PV is both cheaper to manufacture and install than conventional crystalline silicon PV — and more efficient.

High lab-scale device efficiencies have been achieved, and the goal now is to demonstrate high quantity, low cost fabrication based on continuous large-scale manufacturing techniques. Further challenges will be to modify materials and device architecture to enhance environmental stability and minimise toxicity.

Employing state of the art facilities available across our partner groups, they will apply a set of characterisation measurements to provide the relationship between material and device design, efficiency, operational environment, degree of encapsulation and stability.

In the past, the biggest barrier facing the deployment of PV systems in rural communities of developing countries has been the high up-front cost of installing them. Driven by substantial drops in manufacturing costs, the PV industry is gaining market penetration in relatively affluent, developed countries. But installation and maintenance costs remain high, primarily due to the physical form of silicon cells which are glass encapsulated and therefore fragile, inflexible, and relatively heavy. As a result, silicon PV remains out of reach of deprived communities.

However, BIPVCo have demonstrated that the integration of flexible PV into steel roofing products can result in a 30% reduction in installation costs. A major research objective therefore is to develop building-integrated, lightweight photovoltaics that are both affordable and can be easily deployed at site in rural villages. By applying these photovoltaics alongside other sustainable technologies to community buildings in off-grid Indian villages, clean energy will be made available to those who need it most.