In Australia, solar power has become cheaper and more reliable than ever. The solar industry has expanded so rapidly that these days it’s not uncommon to see every house on a street clad with rooftop solar panels. Today, there is no cheaper method to produce energy than that offered by solar panels, and they’re fast becoming even more economical to install. Australia is well known as the sunburnt country, so why aren’t we taking more advantage of our limitless solar potential and working out how to use solar in new ways? Cheap, clean and reliable energy is now undeniably here, so what is next? 

Ivan Perez Wurfl
Ivan Perez Wurfl is a senior lecturer and researcher in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy, Faculty of Engineering at UNSW Sydney. Ivan’s main areas of expertise are solar cell design, fabrication and characterisation. In particular, he has extensively studied and developed silicon quantum dot solar cells and multijunction SiGe/GaAsP tandem solar cells. Before moving to Australia he worked as a device scientist at Power Sicel Inc (now part of Microsemi Corporation), developing SiC High Power RF devices. He was a Fulbright fellow from at the University of Colorado where he obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering. Ivan has authored 100+ journal articles and conference papers in the areas of solar cells and high power and high frequency solid state devices. 

For more information, visit unsw.to/IvanPerezWurfl