Biography
Dr Song obtained her PhD in 2015 under the Supervision of Professor Martin Green. She is now a Senior Lecturer/Senior Research Fellow with SPREE, where she specializes in the efficiency and power potential of silicon solar cells and modules. With over 14 years of experience working in solar with manufacturers, research institutions, and photovoltaic material suppliers, Ning brings terrific insight into all levels of the solar production chain....view more
Dr Song obtained her PhD in 2015 under the Supervision of Professor Martin Green. She is now a Senior Lecturer/Senior Research Fellow with SPREE, where she specializes in the efficiency and power potential of silicon solar cells and modules. With over 14 years of experience working in solar with manufacturers, research institutions, and photovoltaic material suppliers, Ning brings terrific insight into all levels of the solar production chain. She is highly motivated by the opportunity that renewable energy sources present to continually improve their environmental benefits and looks forward to collaborating on her projects.
My Grants
- 2026 – 2030 Lead CI, “AI Accelerated PV Material Discovery” ARENA $5.2 million
- 2026 – 2029 Lead CI, “ Cost Reduction in High Efficiency Si Solar Cells” industry-funded research collaboration, $300,000
- 2025 – 2026 CI, “ Closing the Gap in High-Efficiency Solar Cell Research in Australia, ARC LIEF, $1,315,125
- 2025 – 2026 Co-lead CI, "Beyond Perovskite Si Tandem Solar Cells", ACAPII Collaboration Grant, $85,000
- 2024 – 2025 Lead CI, "High-efficiency Back Contact Si Solar Cells with Poly-Si Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact", UNSW-Chinese Academy of Sciences - Collaborative Research Program, $ 20,000
- 2024 – 2028 Lead CI, “High-efficiency solar cell with poly-Si passivated contact”, industry-funded research collaboration, $80,000
- 2023 – 2024 Lead CI, “Data-driven self-cleaning material discovery”, ACAP seed project, $ 3,800
- 2023 – 2027 CI, stream lead, “Rear-Junction p-type PERC/TOPCon Hybrid Solar Cells” ARENA, $3,740,000
- 2022 – 2024 Lead CI, “ Reduce parasitic absorption from poly-Si passivated contacts”, ACAP, $50,000
- 2018 – 2022 Lead CI, “Silicon Solar Cells with Silicon Carbide Passivated Contacts”, ACAP, $60,000
- 2017 – 2021 CI, stream lead and project manager, “Metallised Encapsulant for Silicon PV Modules: A Path to Reduced LCOE for PV, ARENA, $1,600,000 and industrial cash $450,000
- 2015 – 2017 Lead and Sol CI, “Inkjet-enabled silicon solar cell fabrication – from lab to pilot production”, ARENA Postdoc Fellowship $396,843
My Awards
Excellent Teaching Team Award, UNSW, 2025
Best Paper Award, 21st China Photovoltaic Academic Conference (CPVC-21), 2025 (by primary-supervised PhD student)
Best Oral Presentation Award, 36th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, 2025 (by primary-supervised PhD student)
Outstanding Poster Award, Australia, presented at Asia Pacific Solar Research Conference, 2022
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
Si Solar Cells, thin-film Solar cells, Tandem Solar cells, and Solar modules
AI-Accelerated PV Material Discovery
Thin-film deposition and characterization
Solar cell Metallization and cell to module interconnection
Solar module reliability and materials
My Engagement
Young Editor Board Member, eScience Energy, 2026-2028
Guest Editor, Energies, Special issue, 2025
Elected Academic Staff Member on the Engineering faculty board, 01/2019-06/2021
Dean appointed Member of Engineering Academic Programs Committee, 08/2023-06/2024
Selected Media Coverage
My research in high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies, silver-reduction strategies, advanced metallisation and solar-cell reliability has received coverage in international energy and photovoltaic industry media. I have also been interviewed as a technical expert on emerging solar-cell technologies, manufacturing challenges and industry developments.
2026
October 2026 | Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) — 2026 Casebook, pp. 34–35
Reducing Solar’s Dependence on Silver
National research infrastructure feature. ANFF highlighted my leadership in developing aluminium-based contacts for TOPCon solar cells, demonstrating 22.9% efficiency and a pathway towards industrial manufacturing through collaborations with Toyo Aluminium and Trina Solar.
10 June 2026 | pv magazine
UNSW, Trina Solar design silver-free back contact PV cell with screen-printed aluminum contacts
Research feature and expert interview. Coverage of our work on dual-polarity aluminium contacts for silver-free back-contact silicon solar cells.
5 March 2026 | Anadolu Agency
High silver prices amid volatility revives copper shift debate in solar industry
Expert interview. Perspectives on copper substitution, manufacturing readiness, silver costs and long-term reliability in the global photovoltaic industry.
February 2026 | pv magazine — Print Feature, pp. 52–55
No silver bullet for cell costs
Featured research group and expert commentary. An industry feature highlighting our aluminium-metallisation research at UNSW, including discussion of low-silver and silver-free solar-cell technologies, manufacturing costs and reliability.
23 January 2026 | pv magazine
An immediate transition to copper is technically and economically feasible
Expert commentary. Perspectives on the technical and economic trade-offs associated with replacing silver in photovoltaic metallisation.
8 January 2026 | pv magazine
Localized polysilicon thinning improves TOPCon solar cell performance
Research feature and interview. Coverage of our research on reducing optical losses and improving TOPCon solar-cell efficiency through localised polysilicon thinning.
2025
9 October 2025 | pv magazine
Silver prices surge, yet 'thrifting' poses little threat to solar cell, module quality
Expert interview. Commentary on silver reduction, manufacturing process control and photovoltaic module reliability.
28 March 2025 | pv magazine
TOPCon solar cell based on aluminum contacts achieves slightly lower efficiency than silver-based counterpart
Research feature and interview. Coverage of our research on screen-printed aluminium contacts as a lower-cost alternative to silver metallisation in TOPCon solar cells.
My Teaching
Co-Course Convenor and Lecturer SOLA 3507 Solar Cells
Publications
ORCID as entered in ROS
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5644-8555