Challenges and Opportunities
for Solar Energy
Lecture by solar pioneer Dr Pierre Verlinden
to his awarding of the Francqui Chair
Oude Gevangenis Hasselt University / 11 Sep 2023 / 19h
The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 by nearly 200 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference in France, mandates a reduction of CO² emissions to prevent the average earth temperature from rising more than 2 °C (preferably not more than 1.5 °C).
This legally binding international treaty holds many consequences but solar energy definitely can contribute to reaching the goals set by the Paris Agreement. In the next 3 decades, the solar energy market will grow to multi-terawatt per year. This surely will come with many challenges and in this lecture, Dr Pierre Verlinden will dive into them with you, but he will also present a plan for an Energy Economy with 100% renewables to meet net-zero CO² emissions by 2050.
Are you curious about the opportunities for solar energy? Then we’d love to see you at this inspiring lecture which is part of a lecture series of the Francqui Chair awarded to Dr Pierre Verlinden by the research institute imo-imomec and Faculty of Engineering Technology of Hasselt University.
The following lectures are also part of this series:
- Lecture 2: Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Technology – History, Roadmap and Perspective for the next decade
- Lecture 3: High-Efficiency Silicon Solar Cell Physics and Design
About the speaker
Dr Pierre J. Verlinden was born in D.R. Congo in 1957. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL in Belgium) and was Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (USA) thanks to a NATO Research Fellowship. He was director of R&D SunPower Corporation (USA) and is currently Part-time Chief Scientist and Deputy Chair of the Academic Committee of the State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology of Trina Solar Energy Co. (China). He established technical leadership of Trina Solar, allowing the company to become one of the largest PV manufacturers of cells and modules worldwide.
Program
19:00-19:30 Welcome and introduction
19:30-20:30 Lecture by Dr Pierre Verlinden
20:30-21:00 Panel Debate
Participation is free, but please confirm your attendance by August 25th 2023.
