Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Photonic power is emerging as a driver of next-generation energy systems, where R&D and uptake must accelerate to avoid the severest impacts of climate change, forming a new global clean energy economy critically coupled to higher efficiency, electrification, digitalization, and sustainability. Photovoltaic (PV) solar power is now the least expensive new electricity generator in many regions worldwide, transforming energy industries from global polluters into clean local providers. PV innovations can also be harnessed synergistically in very different applications in aerospace, health, and telecoms. This research program seeks breakthroughs in two photovoltaic themes: (1) PV materials & devices, and (2) system strategies & resource assessments. Research on versatile compound semiconductor (III-V) materials and devices identifies better efficiencies for multijunction solar cells, photonic power converters, and thermal photovoltaics (TPV). For systems, better solar field performance forecasting de-risks business buildout strategies for bifacial systems and structure-integrated photovoltaics, and novel photonic power converter systems revolutionize power and data transmission in free space or over optical fibre. This proposal grows our science capabilities in new directions: (a) accelerating accurate design of better multijunction III-V devices by grafting artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for complex optimizations onto standard numerical engines for solid-state physics; (b) novel ultrathin, textured multijunction architectures for PV devices; (c) new fabrication and epitaxy techniques for PV and TPV devices; (d) novel models for PV collection and conversion; and (e) green hydrogen production from water, powered by solar cells matched precisely to electrolyzer voltages. Program impact is foremost to accelerate transition programs to clean energy economies in Canada and worldwide, ramping faster cost reductions and efficiency improvements in campaigns mitigating fuel consumption, emissions, and waste. For example, each percentage point improvement in solar panel efficiency is equivalent to a proportionate cost reduction of the entire field and distribution network, not just the panels. Lightweight optical fibre systems moving power and data around aerospace vehicles will replace heavy copper cable bundles, reducing parts count and simplifying builds. TPV devices scavenge waste heat from industrial plants or propulsion engines, generating local electrical power. A program hallmark is to exploit similar materials science and device physics across many different applications and markets. The program will train four PhD students and two undergraduate students per year in leading-edge technologies, providing a grounding in semiconductor photonics design, fabrication, and performance testing, applied across renewable energy systems and information and communications products and services in Canadian and global markets.