Prof Andrew Blakers

Andrew Blakers is Professor of Engineering at the Australian National University. In the 1980s and 1990s he was responsible for the design and fabrication of silicon solar cells with world record efficiencies. He was lead developer of the PERC silicon solar cell, for which he was joint winner of the prestigious 2023 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. PERC has 90% of the global solar market, cumulative module sales of US$150 billion and is mitigating 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions through displacement of coal. Prof Blakers engages in analysis of energy systems with 80-100% penetration by wind and photovoltaics supported by storage for which he was joint winner of the 2018 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research. His team developed a comprehensive global atlas of a million off-river pumped hydro energy storage sites.