NATIONAL PH. D. PROGRAMME "PHOTOVOLTAICS"

DOTTORATO NAZIONALE "PHOTOVOLTAICS"

The National PhD on Photovoltaics is proposed to respond to the request that comes from many parts, not only at a national level, but also at the international one. Photovoltaics, in fact, represents one of the pillars of the energy transition and play a key role in achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal. The recent international crisis and its effects on Europe's supply of fossil fuels is leading to a further acceleration of the transition, to the advantage of technologies, including photovoltaics, which have reached great technological maturity and which can provide answers to the demand for energy in a short time. As a result, the European effort in terms of research and development as well as production throughout the supply chain is increasing. An example is the reactivation and strengthening of plants, also in Italy, in Catania, where Enel will upgrade the cell and panel production plant from the current 200 MWp to 3 GWp in 2024. On a European scale, the production chain, from the cells to modules, it will have to be able to provide 20 GWp for plants to be installed in Europe by 2025. This effort would lead to at least 50 billion euros of photovoltaic production in Europe; in Italy, 400 million euros will be dedicated to achieving the national target of 2 GWp of annual production capacity by December 2025. Following the crisis linked to the supply of natural gas and oil, Europe has set itself an even greater target ambitious, which is the achievement of 1 TWp of photovoltaic capacity by 2030.

As a result of these investments, 178.000 new jobs are estimated to be created in Europe. The training of the professional figures necessary to face this effort is the object of attention by the European Commission. The "Pact for Skills" is an invitation from the European Commission to public and private organizations to join forces and take concrete actions to qualify and retrain people in Europe, in order to support an equitable and resilient recovery and realize the ambitions of green and digital transitions and the EU industrial and SME strategies. The working table on renewable energy highlights how a training that integrates core competencies for the sector in question is necessary in this field, for example in the physical, chemical, electrical, electronic, plant engineering sector, with training in the field of digital systems and electrical energy storage systems.

The proposal for the National Doctorate is part of this trend, aimed at the third-level training of professional figures who will strengthen the Italian R&D and industrial chain in the photovoltaic sector. The doctorate will be organized in curricula, which will cover the following aspects:

• Solar cells technologies and lifecycle
• Design and integration
• Monitoring and diagnosis
• Power electronics and control
• Solar intermittency and storage
• Distributed generation and grid connection

The student will access the doctorate through one of the curricula, carrying out a teaching and research activity that will be specific to the curriculum, but acquiring training through courses provided by teachers who work more specifically in other curricula.

The international collaborations already in place at the various universities will guarantee the international mobility, which is expected to be compulsory and equal to one semester, of the students belonging to the doctorate.

Particular attention will be paid to gender equality, through collaborations with initiatives already active in the area, such as the IEEE Women in Engineering (https://italy.ieeer8.org/wie/).

We refer to the curriculum's pages for detailed descriptions of the topics covered by each of them.

For more information about the didactic activities we refer to the official PhD didactic webpage. See also the official Facebook page and the official LinkedIn page.

The References

https://setis.ec.europa.eu/implementing-actions/photovoltaics_en

https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/03/12/the-weekend-read-eu-solar-manufacturing-the-time-is-now/

https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1517&langId=en

https://www.solarpowereurope.org/

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_1511

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Curricula