Professional Certificate: High-performance and Sustainable Photovoltaics

Professional Certificate

Develop the proficiency and expertise that employers are looking for with specialized training and professional education.

2 Courses in program
6 weeks per course
4 - 6 hours per week
English language

The renewable energy sector, including the solar photovoltaic technology field is an essential source of energy for the energy transition. In the last few years, the photovoltaic field has developed rapidly, finding solutions to improve device efficiency and minimize costs at many distinct levels of the device products. The final aim is to reduce costs in order to deliver solar electricity at lower cost than non-renewable sources.

In this program, you will be given a comprehensive view of the fabrication processes, design rules, and environmental impact from solar cells to modules. You will gain knowledge of the most relevant PV technologies that dominate the present-day PV market as well as the next generation solar cell architectures and materials that will enter the market in the near or next future. This will provide you with the appropriate tools, knowledge and skills needed to understand the working principles of high-efficiency solar cells and ways to improve performance, 2) to gain greater insight in deposition technologies for functional thin-films, 3) to apply design rules for novel cell and module architectures, 4) to improve the environmental profile of photovoltaics by reducing material concepts and recycling.

In each course, you will learn how pressing limitations in terms of device performance, material processing, module design and reliability have been addressed based on the different PV technologies and the environmental profile of solar cells and modules.

The program is developed and taught by photovoltaics research experts from the TU Delft PVMD group that has many years of experience in high impact research on solar photovoltaics and in working on practical applications together with industry partners.

Take this program at your own pace!
This online program offers access to course material 24/7 so you can learn at the time and place that suits you.

This program can be started at any time from 18 September 2024 until 2 December 2024, and it will be closed for all participants on 12 December 2024. Please note that all assignments should be submitted before the end date in order to obtain the certificate.

Design concepts, working principles of fabrication processes of various high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) technologies and how to apply these fabrication processes.
Functional principle of PV relevant deposition techniques for a large variety of semiconductor materials to enable high-performance photovoltaics.
Enable more rapid development of novel concepts with the aim of speedier introduction to the market.
How to design a more reliable and sustainable PV module.
Evaluate current and potential recycling technologies to reduce material consumption, especially of critical materials, to minimize environmental impact.

This program will be of value to PV professionals, R&D researchers and process engineers working in the fields of solar cells manufacturing, and module technology to enrich their understanding of novel technology, alternative processes, and enable them to design for sustainability.

Certificates

If you successfully complete this program you will earn a Professional Education Certificate and you are eligible to receive 6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

View sample certificate

Prerequisites

For the first course: Understanding the physics behind solar cells, knowing how they generate electricity and knowledge of the design and processing methods of solar cells.

For the second course Important prerequisites for this course are a basic understanding of the working principles of PV modules and some background knowledge about the different types of solar cells and their build-up.

If you have any questions about this course or the TU Delft online learning environment, please visit our Help & Support page.