In this presentation, challenges and opportunities of both established inorganic chalcogenides such as CdTe and the upcoming alternatives such as CZTS or Sb2Se3 will be reviewed. The importance of interface engineering and structure designs will be corroborated with current research activities at Northumbria Universities and as part of the North East Centre for Energy Materials (NECEM). Finally, other research interests related to PV will be introduced, along with wider research initiatives for the uptake of renewable energy, i.e. the recently funded centre for doctoral training: ReNU (Renewable Energy NorthEast Universities led by Northumbria University).