Apr 24 2014
Professor Henry Snaith is to receive the Materials Research Society’s (MRS) prestigious Outstanding Young Investigator Award for his work on the development of perovskite-based solar cells.
The award will be announced this evening (23rd April) at the 2014 MRS Spring Meeting's Awards Ceremony and Plenary Session held in San Francisco. Snaith, who is a Professor of physics at Oxford University, is pioneering a new generation of thin-film, low cost photovoltaic technology that can easily be integrated into the glass facades of buildings.
Professor Henry Snaith.
Professor Snaith’s technology recently achieved power conversion efficiencies of 17% and is set to revolutionise the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) market, as well as utility applications.
Speaking about the award, Professor Snaith said: “I am delighted to be held in such esteem by the Materials Research Society. It is a great honour to receive the award and recognition such as this really helps to raise the profile of the exciting developments we are making in solar technology which we believe will result in a transformational change across the world.”
The MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award recognises“outstanding, interdisciplinary scientific work in materials research by a young scientist or engineer.” The award recipient “must also show exceptional promise as a developing leader in the materials area.” This is not the first time Professor Snaith’s work has been recognised: in 2012, he was awarded the Institute of Physics’ Patterson Medal, whilst in 2013, Nature magazine included him in its prestigious annual list often people who have made a difference to science – the only UK scientist to be included.
In 2010, Henry Snaith co-founded, as Chief Scientific Officer,Oxford Photovoltaics (Oxford PV), which has exclusively licensed and is commercialising his technology.
Kevin Arthur, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Oxford PV said of Snaith’s award: “We’re obviously delighted for Henry’s work to be recognised in this way and it helps raise the profile of this ground-breaking technology. We’re making rapid progress towards commercialisation and expect to sign the first licensing deal with a glass manufacturer during 2015. As efficiencies continue to rise, we’re looking at utility applications, alongside the BIPV market, and are extremely optimistic that our product will be in use by 2017 or even sooner.”
Oxford Photovoltaics (Oxford PV) is a technology start-up business and spin-out from Oxford University, which has exclusively licensed and is developing a photovoltaic technology that has the potential to deliver low cost, efficient solar cells that can be readily incorporated into glass building facades, turning skyscrapers into power stations.
Based at Begbroke Science Park, Oxford PV’s primary objective is to deliver a massively scalable product for the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) market and then, as energy conversion performance improves further, for other high-volume PV applications.
Backed by £7m of equity and grant funding, Oxford PV research and development team led by Professor Henry Snaith, is moving swiftly towards the manufacture and delivery of larger modules that meet internationally accepted standards and specifications for photovoltaic products.