FuturePV – Graduate Research School “Fundamentals for photovoltaic technologies of the future”

The aim of the FuturePV research network is to establish an interdisciplinary co-operation network of research groups in Lower Saxony as a graduate college in the field of photovoltaics. In view of the central importance of photovoltaics for the future energy supply in Lower Saxony, Germany and worldwide, research into fundamental questions of photovoltaics will be strengthened. As part of the FuturePV project, 12 doctoral theses are carried out in research groups with very different areas of expertise (e.g. ab-initio band structure calculations, synthesis of new PV materials, solar cell fabrication and analysis, simulation of components) on current topics in photovoltaic research. The planned doctoral theses form the basis for the long-term further development of photovoltaic technologies beyond the foreseeable development stages of the coming years. The network structure is based on the principle of a graduate research school, i.e. doctoral theses are carried out in the various participating research groups and results are exchanged and discussed in detail in joint workshops. The topics of the planned doctoral theses cover the entire spectrum of photovoltaic research, from materials research and innovative characterization methods to the production of prototype solar cells and innovative module contacting and optics. One focus is the highly topical research on tandem cells based on metal halide perovskites as well as the fundamental understanding of perovskites as an extremely promising new class of materials for the photovoltaics of the future.