Renewable energy stands as the most significant contributor on the path to a sustainable energy Earth. Solar photovoltaics (PV) are poised to take the lead as the largest energy generation source, driving the achievement of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. During the past decade, the PV industry has demonstrated exponential growth, leading to the largest annual global net new deployment among all energy generations over the past few years. Moving forward, the PV industry heads towards a remarkable expansion, with the potential for a 10-fold increase to multi-terawatt scales of annual production over the next decade.

The key driver for the expansion of solar PV lies in further significant reduction of cost and increase of solar-to power efficiency. Continuous cost reductions in materials and manufacturing, along with technological advancements including efficiency improvements in industrial silicon (Si) solar cells will contribute to this progress. However, the current Si solar cell technology faces a theoretical efficiency limit of 29% leaving limited room for further improvement, making it urgent to develop next-generation solar cell technologies that can surpass this limit. In this seminar, I will share my 13-year journey focused on developing solar cell technologies to break through the 30% solar-to-power efficiency barrier while achieving ultra-low cost. I will discuss my work, spanning from material innovation and development to device fabrication and engineering, and fundamental investigation. I will also introduce the potential comprehensive renewable solutions enabled by our ultra-low-cost solar technology, including cost-effective solar hydrogen generation. Additionally, I will outline our research plans aimed at accelerating the commercialization pathway of these technologies and facilitating their large-scale deployment in the coming years.