Professor.Director Centre Sustainable Energy Systems (CSES), Director ARC Centre for Solar Energy Systems. CCI Internal Governance Board Member. (College of Engineering and Computer Science)

1979-83    Doctor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales

1974-77    Bachelor of Science, Australian National University

Professional Background

Andrew has extensive experience and expertise in solar research and currently holds the following memberships and positions (among others):

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy
• Life Member of the International Solar Energy Society
• Life Member of the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society
• Member of the Editorial Board of “Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells”
• Member, Project Evaluation Panel for the Clean Energy Research Program of Singapore

• Reviewer: Australian Research Council and several technical journals and conferences

Andrew has worked at the ANU since 1991. In that time external research funds to projects of which Andrew is a Chief Investigator exceed $35 million. Prior to ANU Andrew worked at the University of New South Wales (79-89; 90-91),Max Planck Institut für Festkörperforschung in Germany (89-90), and in several consultancy capacities.

A most notable achievement of Andrew’s whilst with ANU is the development of Sliver solar cells, is a new type of solar cell with the potential to reduce the cost of solar power significantly. This technology has already transferred into industry; with funding partner Origin Energy having built a dedicated pilot manufacturing facility at Regency Park in Adelaide, tocommercialise the technology.

Research & Teaching Interests

Andrew holds specific interest and focus in -

• Solar photovoltaic and thermal energy conversion, including both technical and commercial aspects
• Semiconductor physics and technology, in particular as it relates to photovoltaics
• Renewable energy markets, energy economics and energy related environmental issues

 Notable Publications

1. A.W. Blakers, M.A. Green, Shi Jiqun, E.M. Keller, S.R. Wenham, R.B. Godfrey, T. Szpitalak and M.R. Willison, ”18% Efficient Terrestrial Silicon Solar Cell”, Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-5, pp. 12-13, 1984. [1st 18% efficient silicon solar cell]

2. A.W. Blakers and M.A. Green, ”20% Efficient Silicon Solar Cell”, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 48, pp. 215-217, 1986. [1st 20% efficient silicon solar cell]

3. A.W. Blakers, A. Wang, A.M. Milne, J. Zhao and M.A. Green, ”22.8% Efficient Silicon Solar Cell”, Appl. Physics Letters, Vol. 55, pp. 1363-1365, 1989. [Record efficient silicon solar cell]

4. A.W. Blakers, ”High Efficiency Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells”, in Festkörperprobleme, Advances in Solid State Physics 30, ed. by U. Rössler, Vieweg, pp 403-423, August, 1990

5. A.W. Blakers, K.J. Weber, M.F. Stuckings, S. Armand, G. Matlakowski, A.J. Carr, M.J. Stocks, A. Cuevas and T. Brammer, ‘17% Efficient Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell by Liquid Phase Epitaxy’, Progress in Photovoltaics, Vol 3, pp 193-195, 1995

6. Blakers, AW and Weber, KJ, Semiconductor wafer processing to increase the usable planar surface area, 2002220348, filed November 2001 [Sliver cell patent]