In the midst of the first and second “oil shocks” of the 70s, when oil prices went up 300%, the world looked towards other forms of energy. But one man, and his small group of experts, looked towards the sun.

Scientia Professor Martin Green, University of New South Wales, is rightfully honoured as the ‘Father of the Solar Cell’. With his deep understanding of semiconductors and micro-electricity, he fashioned a novel way of trapping the particles of the sun. Discarding metal, he fashioned solar cells out of silicon, which proved to be an excellent way of splitting the sun’s photons into exciting electrons, ultimately converting light into electricity.

This simple yet radical shifted the efficiency of solar modules from to 18% – a significant uptick from the existing 5-6%

Today, he’s taken the benchmark to 21.6%

The new grail is to hit 40% efficiency.

Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, Green’s pioneering technology has held world records for 30 out of 37 years, making leaps in efficiency. In 1983, he created the PERC cell – Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell – that is now the world’s most used tech for manufacturing solar cells and accounts for a whopping 90% of global solar production.

As Green says, if you own a solar cell, it likely contains his invention. Together, with his 120+ PhD students, he’s now working on various fronts of this Mission Solar to make clean energy cheap, accessible and tangible.

As the impacts of climate change accelerate, Green is in a race to crack the next best material for his photovoltaic reactions – a material that could make 40% efficiency possible. Once this elusive ingredient is identified, he believes, the key is to stack the cells on top of another.

Much like a stairway towards the Sun.

At SYNAPSE, he will unpack 50 years of fighting climate change. Chasing the sun. Big questions facing the human race. And the breakthroughs exciting him

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