Australian solar pioneers meet King Charles III in ceremony of prestigious engineering prize
King Charles has recognised the efforts of solar panel researchers, including Australian engineer Martin Green, with the 2023 Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Engineering.
Australian solar panel pioneers have been honoured by King Charles with the 2022 and 2023 Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Engineering, which celebrate advances in solar panel technology and rare earth metal magnets.
This year’s laureates are Martin Green, Andrew Blakers, Aihua Wang and Jianhua Zhao.
The group pioneered Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell solar panels, which improve the efficiency of the cell by bouncing light particles back through an extra layer of silicon.
The improvement of these panels has cut the manufacturing cost of solar farms by 80 per cent over 10 years.
Professor Green conducted his research on PERC solar panels at the University of NSW and was previously awarded the 2021 Japan Prize for his efforts.
“The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is famously committed to recognising engineering that delivers transformational change in society, and I believe a transformational shift towards solar and wind generated power is inevitable,” Professor Green said.
“It is a critical trajectory that we’re on and it is special to be recognised for our part in that.”
In 2020, the International Energy Agency confirmed that solar power was the cheapest form of energy, beating out all fossil fuel alternatives alongside turbine wind power.
Last year’s recipient, Masato Sagawa, who discovered and commercialised neodymium magnets, collected his trophy alongside the group.
Dr Sagawa was not able to go and accept his trophy until this year because of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
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