Professor Renate Egan
Professor

Professor Renate Egan

Engineering
Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering

Professor Renate Egan leads the UNSW activity in the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, the national centre for photovoltaics research led by UNSW, in partnership with ANU, UQ, CSIRO University of Melbourne and Monash, with the objective to work together on the next generation of photovoltaics.  She is also Deputy Head of School (Engagement) in the School of Solar PV and Renewable Energy Engineering, and Interim CEO of the UNSW Energy Institute. 

Renate joined UNSW in 2014 after a 20 year career in industry where she led manufacturing and technology development in Australia, Germany and China and is a leading authority on manufacturing costing and technology transfer. 

Renate is also Co-Founder of Solar Analytics, Australia's largest independent energy monitoring provider. In earlier roles, as Director and CTO of CSG Solar AG and Managing Director of Suntech R&D Australia Pty Ltd, Renate held executive leadership roles in technology development in the solar industry at a time of dramatic progress in manufacturing, development and deployment.  

With expertise across industry, manufacturing and small business, government, university and not-for-profits, Renate now participates on a number of national and international panels, boards and review committees across the energy sector. Renate represents Australian on the Executive Committee of the IEA PV Power Systems program.

Major Research Themes

Techno-economic analysis. Bringing together a lifetime of experience in taking technology to market, This project focuses on developing models and metrics for assessing new technology developments for their commercial viability and impact on energy markets. The research is cross-disciplinary, taking into account engineering developments, financial modelling, energy markets and environmental and social impacts.

Energy Data for Smart Decision Making. As the energy industry shifts from centralised to decentralised generation the use of good data  becomes critical for decision making. WIth a deep understanding of the cost trajectories in solar deployment, and with increasing visibility of energy data in networks, this research seeks to use machine learning and big-data analysis to understand energy generation and demand patterns, including elements of generation, storage and forecasting. 

Expertise

Manufacturing costing, techno-economic analysis, solar cell manufacturing, solar engineering, energy policy, energy market analysis.

 

  • Journal articles | 2023
    Abad B; Alberi K; Ayers KE; Badhulika S; Ban C; Béa H; Béron F; Cairney J; Chang JP; Charles C; Creatore M; Dong H; Du J; Egan R; Everschor-Sitte K; Foley C; Fontcuberta i Morral A; Jung MH; Kim H; Kurtz S; Lee J; Leitao DC; Lemmer K; Marschilok AC; Mitu B; Newman BK; Owens R; Pappa AM; Park Y; Peckham M; Rossi LM; Shim SH; Siddiqui SA; Son JW; Spiga S; Tsikata S; Vianello E; Wilson K; Yuasa H; Zardo I; Zenyuk I; Zhang Y; Zhao Y, 2023, 'The 2022 applied physics by pioneering women: a roadmap', Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 56, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ac82f9
    Journal articles | 2022
    Chang NL; Dehghanimadvar M; Egan R, 2022, 'The cost of risk mitigation—Diversifying the global solar PV supply chain', Joule, vol. 6, pp. 2686 - 2688, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.12.003
    Journal articles | 2022
    Chang NL; Poduval GK; Sang B; Khoo K; Woodhouse M; Qi F; Dehghanimadvar M; Li WM; Egan RJ; Hoex B, 2022, 'Techno-economic analysis of the use of atomic layer deposited transition metal oxides in silicon heterojunction solar cells', Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pip.3553
    Journal articles | 2022
    Dias PR; Schmidt L; Chang NL; Monteiro Lunardi M; Deng R; Trigger B; Bonan Gomes L; Egan R; Veit H, 2022, 'High yield, low cost, environmentally friendly process to recycle silicon solar panels: Technical, economic and environmental feasibility assessment', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 169, pp. 112900 - 112900, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112900
    Journal articles | 2022
    Zhang J; Chang N; Fagerholm C; Qiu M; Shuai L; Egan R; Yuan C, 2022, 'Techno-economic and environmental sustainability of industrial-scale productions of perovskite solar cells', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 158, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112146
    Journal articles | 2021
    Chang NL; Zheng J; Wu Y; Shen H; Qi F; Catchpole K; Ho-Baillie A; Egan RJ, 2021, 'A bottom-up cost analysis of silicon–perovskite tandem photovoltaics', Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, vol. 29, pp. 401 - 413, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pip.3354
    Journal articles | 2021
    Wang A; Chang NL; Sun K; Xue C; Egan RJ; Li J; Yan C; Huang J; Rong H; Ramsden C; Hao X, 2021, 'Analysis of manufacturing cost and market niches for Cu2ZnSnS4(CZTS) solar cells', Sustainable Energy and Fuels, vol. 5, pp. 1044 - 1058, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d0se01734e
    Journal articles | 2021
    Yildiz B; Roberts M; Bilbao JI; Heslop S; Bruce A; Dore J; MacGill I; Egan RJ; Sproul AB, 2021, 'Assessment of control tools for utilizing excess distributed photovoltaic generation in domestic electric water heating systems', Applied Energy, vol. 300, pp. 117411 - 117411, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117411
    Journal articles | 2020
    Chang NL; Wright M; Egan R; Hallam B, 2020, 'The Technical and Economic Viability of Replacing n-type with p-type Wafers for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells', Cell Reports Physical Science, vol. 1, pp. 100069 - 100069, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100069
    Journal articles | 2020
    Yates J; Daiyan R; Patterson R; Egan R; Amal R; Ho-Baille A; Chang NL, 2020, 'Techno-economic Analysis of Hydrogen Electrolysis from Off-Grid Stand-Alone Photovoltaics Incorporating Uncertainty Analysis', Cell Reports Physical Science, vol. 1, pp. 100209 - 100209, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100209
    Journal articles | 2018
    Chang NL; Ho-Baillie AWY; Vak D; Gao M; Green MA; Egan RJ, 2018, 'Manufacturing cost and market potential analysis of demonstrated roll-to-roll perovskite photovoltaic cell processes', Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 174, pp. 314 - 324, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.08.038
    Journal articles | 2013
    Dore J; Eggleston BD; Kim K; Keevers M; Varlamov S; Green MA; Evans R; Schubert U; Ong D; Huang J; Kunz O; Egan R, 2013, 'Thin-film polycrystalline silicon solar cells formed by diode laser crystallisation', Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, vol. 21, pp. 1377 - 1383, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pip.2282
    Journal articles | 2013
    Dore J; Varlamov S; Evans R; Eggleston BD; Ong DS; Kunz O; Huang J; Schubert U; Kim K; Egan R; Green MA, 2013, 'Performance potential of low-defect density silicon thin-film solar cells obtained by electron beam evaporation and laser crystallisation', EPJ Photovoltaics, vol. 4, pp. no. 40301, http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2012012
    Journal articles | 2013
    Varlamov S; Dore J; Evans R; Ong D; Eggleston B; Kunz O; Schubert U; Young T; Huang J; Soderstrom T; Omaki K; Kim K; Teal A; Jung M; Yun J; Pakhuruddin ZM; Egan R; Green MA, 2013, 'Polycrystalline silicon on glass thin-film solar cells: A transition from solid-phase to liquid-phase crystallised silicon', Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 119, pp. 246 - 255, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2013.08.001
    Journal articles | 2011
    Tao Y; Varlamov S; Jin G; Wolf M; Egan R, 2011, 'Effects of annealing temperature on crystallisation kinetics and properties of polycrystalline Si thin films and solar cells on glass fabricated by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition', Thin Solid Films, vol. 520, pp. 543 - 549, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2011.06.089
  • Conference Papers | 2018
    Chang NL; Hallam B; Chen D; Egan RJ, 2018, 'Techno-economic analysis of silicon heterojunction cell sequences using hydrogenated p-type wafers', in 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC 2018 - A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC and 34th EU PVSEC, pp. 2108 - 2113, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2018.8547685
    Conference Papers | 2014
    Young TL; Hee K; Lennon AJ; Egan RJ; Wilkie O; Yao Y, 2014, 'Design and characterization of an adhesion strength tester for evaluating metal contacts on silicon solar cells', in 2014 IEEE 40th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014, pp. 2550 - 2553, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925450