ANU’s Professor Andrew Blakers receives Clunies Ross Innovation Award
We are proud to share the news that ACAP member Professor Andrew Blakers is the recipient of the prestigious 2024 Clunies Ross Technology Innovation Award from the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) for his pioneering and transformational contributions to the renewable energy transition.
Andrew Blakers (FAA FTSE) is Professor of Engineering at ANU and founded the solar cell research group at ANU in 1991, which has 60 staff and PhD students.
Developing silicon solar cell technology
Professor Blakers is well known for his work in the 1980s alongside UNSW’s Professor Martin Green developing the silicon solar cell and, following that, the commercially viable PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact) solar cells that are now at the heart of the worldwide solar industry.
“I did my PhD at the University of New South Wales and several post docs and during that time I worked on high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. By the time the team had finished, the efficiency had been pushed up to 25%. The PERC cell design is now about half of all the solar panels ever made,” says Blakers.
The team did not patent their technology to encourage its adoption and proliferation. Cumulative PERC sales are now around $250 billion and PERC modules are mitigating about 2-3% of global emissions through displacement of coal generation.
“I've been working in the field of solar energy and renewable energy since 1979 and I thought then that solar energy would, in the end, be the major source of energy for the world. This has turned out to be true – there's been continuous, rapid exponential growth for 40 or 50 years and now solar is the dominant form of new generation capacity,” he says.
Professor Blakers was also co-inventor of Sliver solar cell technology, which involves thin film silicon-based solar cells and modules using less silicon material and with lower manufacturing costs.
Demonstrating viable, low cost, stable 100% renewable energy systems
The Clunies Ross Award also recognises Professor Blakers’s work analysing energy systems with 80-100% penetration by wind and solar photovoltaics supported by storage. His team’s modelling, tools and analysis demonstrates that these systems can eliminate dependence on petrol, methane gas, diesel and coal, and eliminate three quarters of greenhouse emissions.
Blakers’s research and outreach has increased understanding of how to create clean, resilient and affordable future energy systems.
“We are showing that very large scale and rapid deployment of solar and wind does not lead to technical problems but, instead, leads to very low cost very stable electric systems. And when we electrify transport, heating and Industry we can readily get rid of all fossil fuels over the next 15 years.”
The Global Pumped Hydro Atlas
The Clunies Ross Award also recognises the visionary global pumped hydro atlas, which details a million potential off-river pumped hydro energy storage sites, also developed by Blakers and his team. The atlas is highly influential in the renewable energy storage industry, with projects stemming from the atlas worth tens of billions of dollars.
On the importance of ARENA’s sustained support of ACAP and innovation, Professor Blakers says,
“ACAP has allowed investment in long term research and development of advanced research facilities. This supports a rapid transition to renewable energy through commercialisation of research, the education of scientists and engineers, and vigorous and sustained outreach.”
We extend our thanks and congratulations to Professor Blakers for his remarkable leadership, commitment and achievements contributing to the renewable energy transition.
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