The 8th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion took place from 26 – 30 September 2022 in the MiCo Milano Convention Centre in Milan, Italy. During the event week, a rich and diverse programme of more than 1100 presentations was offered to over 1500 participants from all over the world, and more participants are joining daily as the content is still available online for three months. The halls of MiCo were bursting with positive energy and optimism and a growing exhibition attracted PV professionals to exchange with industry companies and research institutions alike.
Session recordings globally accessible
In line with the international character of the event, WCPEC-8 wants to include participants from all over the world and do justice to the large number of presentations by making all sessions of the scientific conference programme and parallel events, including plenaries, orals,
posters and panel discussions, globally accessible via a dedicated online platform. The sessions are available for streaming on demand for three full months after the event. Tickets for the online platform can be purchased via the WCPEC-8 website.
Purchase online platform tickets
A global and full-scale PV deployment needs collaboration
This is the main take-away that was mentioned several times at this year’s WCPEC-8. It can be observed that many regions are showing a great deal of ambition to expand PV production, but only through a joint effort can the global energy crisis be overcome. As PV is becoming a
key pillar of energy production it also means that disturbances (such as faults) play an increasingly important role. Therefore, it is important to understand these mechanisms.
Another important outcome that was mentioned, is that PV research is doing a great job. High efficiencies are being reached, advances are made in the substitution of silver in the solar cells, reduction of costs race remains active and focus is placed on the decrease of use of hazardous materials, just to mention a few examples. But it is key to bring those findings to the right authorities, to inform the general public more and to involve material scientists, chemists and key-players from social and political science.
Integrated PV that add value to existing products or areas has advanced so much in research and industry in the recent years, that the main pressing challenge identified for the widespread not being of technological and economical nature, but regulatory. This shows the need for governments to act faster in order to accelerate the deployment of IPV in fight against climate change.
In addition to the scientific conference programme, a multitude of horizontal topics were presented and discussed in the Industry Summit and the Parallel Events.
Award Ceremonies
Looking back at what has already been achieved in the PV sector in the past, it was a pleasure to see Prof. Martin Green, from the University of New South Wales, Australia, being honoured with the WCPEC Award for his distinguished contribution to advancement of photovoltaic science and technology; and Prof. Marko Topič being awarded with the prestigious Becquerel Prize for his outstanding and continuous scientific contributions to photovoltaics and his enormous engagement towards creating a strong PV community, in Europe and worldwide.
First ever PV Academy
On the occasion of WCPEC-8, the first ever PV Academy took place at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. This marks the starting point of a new educational format that aims to provide deep insight into selected topics in PV research and development and to educate and facilitate newcomers to the field of PV research. The PV Academy seeks to be the new platform for knowledge transfer in PV science and will be continuously enriched with new content and lectures. The PV Academy platform will be launched in the upcoming weeks.
EU PVSEC 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal
In 2023, the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition will be held from 18 – 22 September 2023 in the warm and sunny city of Lisbon, Portugal. 2023 will be a special edition, marking the 40th anniversary of the Photovoltaic Conference in Europe.
Background WCPEC-8 / EU PVSEC
The World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-8) combined the three largest and most prominent international PV conferences: the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (39th EU PVSEC), the Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (IEEE PVSC50) and the International PV Science and Engineering Conference (PVSEC-32).
The EU PVSEC is the largest international Conference for Photovoltaic research, technologies and applications and at the same time a PV Industry Exhibition, where specialized PV Industry presents technologies, innovations and new concepts in the upstream PV sector.
The conference scientific programme is coordinated by the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
