Professor Kurt L. Barth

BSc(Eng), MMEng, Ph.D.

  • Professor in Photovoltaics
  • University Special Envoy to North America

Research groups and centres

Publications
Headshot of Professor Barth, smiling whilst looking directly into the camera

Background

Kurt L. Barth is the Professor in Photovoltaics at the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST). His research focuses on achieving Net-Zero, photovoltaics, module manufacturing / reliability and enterprise development. 

Dr. Barth has over 20 years of experience with CdTe materials and has directed research programs advancing group II-VI device structure, processing, materials science, characterization and manufacturing. He has guided research programs totalling the equivalent of over £20M. Recent programs include understanding the role of Se, Mg and Cl and group V doping in CdTe-based polycrystalline thin film devices. This research has achieved the world record device efficiency among all national laboratories or universities for this device.

As founder and Board member of the CdTe solar photovoltaic manufacturer, Abound Solar, he developed the initial business plan, obtained major equity financing (eventually totalling over $300M) and provided leadership for company growth. As VP of Product Development, Mr. Barth, drove the product from conceptualization through deployment and achieved IEC and UL certifications in one of the shortest times in the industry. Kurt L. Barth is currently the President and Founder of Direct Solar LLC., which provides expertise in solar construction and technoeconomic analysis.

From 2012 to 2021 Dr. Barth was a director in the US National Science Foundation supported Next Generation PV Center. He has made significant scientific contributions to the thin film solar research field. By establishing the Advanced Module Laboratory at Colorado State University, he drove the developed of new module architectures, encapsulation methods, analysis techniques and manufacturing processes to streamline module production and characterization. He is a frequent speaker on thin film PV manufacturing and reliability topics.

Key awards

Recent key awards: 

  1. Team Researcher Award, College of Agricultural Sciences, Colorado State University, April 2021 
  2. Editorial board member for Energies (ISSN 1996-1073, impact factor 3.0) 
  3. Invited editorial article by Krasikov, Dmitry. "Selenium lowers bulk recombination." Nature Energy 4 (6) (2019): pp 442-443 commenting on Nature Energy, 4(6), pp. 504-511 which Barth co-authored
  4. Invited Panellist, "Decarbonization Solutions", 21st Century Energy Transition Symposium, Driving Innovations, April 2019
  5. Outstanding Researcher Award, Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering, Colorado State University, November 2018. 
  6. Selected Visiting Scholar, Institute of Advanced Studies, Loughborough University, UK, July 2018.  
  7. Session Chair, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photovoltaic Specialists Conf., Washington DC June 2017

Research interests 

  • Thin film solar photovoltaics
  • Renewable Energy and Net-Zero
  • Group II-V materials processing 
  • Thin film growth 
  • Materials characterization
  • Solar module encapsulation development 
  • Solar module design and reliability
  • Technoeconomic analysis
  • IP development strategies 


Grants and contracts

  • “Network Plus for Sustainable Solar Energy Systems (SES)”, 2024-2027, £499,987;  UKRI/EPSRC (UK Research and Innovation/Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council); Principal Investigator. See the article in The Engineer website: New facility set to enable nanoscale imaging of solar cells.
  • “National Facility for High Resolution CL Analysis of Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Devices” 2023-2026, £2,668,403; UKRI/EPSRC (UK Research and Innovation/Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), EP/X030245/1;  Co-Principal Investigator.

Current teaching responsibilities 

  • 22WS05META
  • 22WS69META - Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineers
  • 22WSP069META - Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Engineering
  • 22WSP069 - Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Engineering 
  • 22WSD503 - Project Engineering - Total Product Design 
  • 22WSI010 - DIS Industrial Placement (non credit bearing)
  • 22WSI020 - DPS Industrial Placement (non credit bearing)
  • 22WSP502 - MSc Individual Project 
  • 22WSP502META - Individual MSc Project
  • 22WSZ201 - Wolfson School Pre-Placement

Administrative responsibilities

Associate Director of the Wolfson Net-Zero Hub

Refereed publications and presentations (last 6 years) 

  • Liu, X., Abbas, A., Togay, M., Kornienko, V., Greenhalgh, R., Curson, K., Bowers, J., Barth, K., Walls, M., Bastola, E. and Barros-King, G., 2024. The effect of remnant CdSe layers on the performance of CdSeTe/CdTe photovoltaic devices. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 267, 112717, April 2024. p.112717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2024.112717
  •  Vladislav Kornienko, Ali Abbas, Kieran Curson, Stuart Robertson ,Yau Yau Tse, Ochai Oklobia, Stuart Irvine, Steve Jones, Amit Munshi ,Walajabad Sampath, Kurt Barth ,Jake Bowers and Michael Walls, “Absorber Texture And The Efficiency Of Polycrystalline Thin Film CdTe Solar Cells”, Thin Solid Films, 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2024.140277
  •  Luksa Kujovic, Xiaolei Liu, Ali Abbas, Adam M. Law, Mustafa Togay, Kurt L. Barth, Jake W. Bowers, John M. Walls, Ochai Oklobia, Stuart J. C. Irvine, Wei Zhang, Chungho Lee, Timothy Nagle, Dingyuan Lu, and Gang Xiong "Achieving 21.4% Efficient CdSeTe/CdTe Solar Cells Using Highly Resistive Intrinsic ZnO Buffer Layers", Advanced Functional Materials, Dec. 2023, doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202312528
  • ogay, M. et. al. Transient Metastable Behaviour caused by Magnesium-doped Zinc Oxide emitters in CdSeTe/CdTe Solar Cells, accepted IEEE J. PV, January 2023.  
  • Uchanski, ,Mark *, Thomas Hickey, Jennifer Bousselot and Kurt L. Barth, Characterization of Agrivoltaic Crop Environment Conditions Using Opaque and Thin-Film Semitransparent Modules, Under review with Energies, submitted Jan 2023.  
  • Infante-Ortega, Luis C., Xiaolei Liu, Luksa Kujovic, Mustafa Togay, Luke O. Jones, Ali Abbas, Kieran Curson, Rachael C. Greenhalgh, Kurt L. Barth, Jake W.  Bowers, John M. Walls, Ochai Oklobia, Stuart Irvine, Eric Colegrove, Brian Good, Matt Reese, "SnO2 buffer layers for high efficiency CdSeTe/CdTe devices", submitted to IEEE PVSC, Jan 2023.
  •  Kujovic, Luksa, Xiaolei Liu, Mustafa Togay, Luke Jones, Luis Infante-Ortega, Kurt L. Barth, Jake W. Bowers, John M. Walls, Ochai Oklobia , Stuart Irvine, David W. Miller, Timothy Nagle, Wei Zhang, Dingyuan Lu, Gang Xiong, Wyatt Metzger,  "19.5% Efficient CdSeTe/CdTe Solar Cells Using ZnO Buffer Layers ",  submitted to IEEE PVSC, Jan 2023.
  • Law, Adam M, Luksa Kujovic, Luis Infante-Ortega, Xiaolei Lui, Kurt L Barth, John M Walls, "A Broadband Anti-reflection Coating for Thin Film CdSeTe/CdTe Solar Cells" submitted to IEEE PVSC, Jan 2023.
  • Kempe, Michael D, Alliston Watts, Tushar Shimpi, Samuel Ellis, and Kurt Barth, "Modeling of the effectiveness of novel edge seal designs for fast, low-Cap-Ex manufacturing". under review, Energy Science & Engineering, Oct. 2022.   
  •  Fiducia, Tom, Ashley Howkins, Ali Abbas, Budhika Mendis, Amit Munshi, Kurt Barth, Walajabad Sampath, John Walls, “Selenium passivates grain boundaries in alloyed CdTe solar cells,” Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Volume 238, 2022, 111595, ISSN 0927-0248, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111595.
  •   Xiaolei Liu, Luke Jones, Luksa Kujovic, Nicholas Hunwick, Luis Infante-Ortega, Michael Walls, Tushar Shimpi, Walajabad Sampath, Kurt Barth, Steve Jones, Ochai Oklobia, Stuart Irvine “Measurement of Band Alignment between ZnO Based Front Emitters and CdCl2 Treated CdSeTe/CdTe Absorbers”, 49th IEEE PVSC, 2022. 
  • Mustafa Togay, Tushar Shimpi, Sampath S. Walajabad, Kurt L. Barth, J. Michael Walls and Jake W. Bowers, “Ga-doping of MZO in CdSeTe/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells”, 49th IEEE PVSC, 2022. 
  • Shimpi, T, Samuel Ellis, Larry Maple, and Kurt L. Barth, "Optimization of Edge Seal Polymer Dispense Parameters for the Encapsulation of Solar Modules" To be submitted to Solar Energy, March 2022. 
  • Samuel Ellis, Larry Maple, Tushar Shimpi, Ashwini Pavgi, Govindasamy Tamizhmani, Walajabad Sampath, Kurt Barth, "Reliability and Manufacturing Demonstrations of a New Photovoltaic Module Architecture and Streamlined Approach to Encapsulation" oral presentation, 48th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2021.
  • Vladislav Kornienko, Stuart Robertson, Ryan Maclachlan, Tushar Shimpi, Walajabad Sampath, Kurt Barth, Thomas Fiducia, Ali Abbas, Yau Yau Tse, Jake Bowers, Michael Walls, "High Speed 3-Dimensional Characterisation of a Graded CdSeTe/CdTe PV Device Using a Xenon Plasma-Focused Ion beam (PFIB)" oral presentation, 48th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2021.
  •  Mustafa Togay, Rachael Greenhalgh, Tushar Shimpi, Sampath S. Walajabad, Kurt L. Barth, J. Michael Walls, Jake W. Bowers, "Transient Metastable Behaviour in Highly Efficient MZO/CdSeTe/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells" 48th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2021.
  • Munshi, Amit H, Ramesh Pandey; Ali Abbas, Kevan Cameron, Kurt Barth, John M Walls, Walajabad Sampath, Efficiency improvement in CdS/CdTe solar cells with altered process temperature explained using SCAPS simulations", submitted Journal of Electronic Materials, Submission ID: JEMS-D-20-02140, Nov. 2020.  
  • Lisco, Fabiana, Farwah Bukhari, Soňa Uličná, Kenan Isbilir, Kurt L. Barth, Alan Taylor and John M. Walls "Degradation of Hydrophobic, Anti-Soiling Coatings for Solar Module Cover Glass" Energies 2020, 13(15), 3811; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13153811 - 24 Jul 2020
  • Fiducia, T. Ashley Howkins, Ali Abbas, Budhika Mendis, Amit Munshi, Kurt Barth, Walajabad Sampath, Michael Walls, "Passivation of Grain Boundaries in Selenium-alloyed CdTe Solar Cells" submitted to Small Methods, July 2020. 
  • Mathews, Ian, Sai Nithin Reddy Kantareddy, Zhe Liu, Amit Munshi, Kurt Barth, Walajabad Sampath, Tonio Buonassisi, and Ian Peters. "Analysis of CdTe photovoltaic cells for ambient light energy harvesting." Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (2020), accepted on line May 20, 2020.
  •  Oehler, G.C., Lisco, F., Bukhari, F., Uličná, S., Strauss, B., Barth, K.L. and Walls, J.M., "Testing the durability of anti-soiling coatings for solar cover glass by outdoor exposure in Denmark". Energies, 13(2), p.299 2020.
  •  Ellis, S. L. Maple, Tushar Shimpi, Ashwini Pavgini, Walajabad Sampath, Govindasamy, Tamizhmani, Kurt L. Barth, "Demonstration New Non-Lamination Encapsulation Technology"  oral, 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2020.
  •  Bukhari, F., Lisco, F., Uličná, S., Barth, K. and Walls, J.M., 2020, June. Abrasion resistance of hydrophobic, anti-soiling coatings for solar cover glass. In 2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) (pp. 1866-1870). IEEE
  •   Fiducia, Thomas A.M, Ashley Howkins, Ali Abbas, Budhika Mendis, Amit Munshi, Kurt Barth, Walajabad S. Sampath, John M. Walls, "TEM-based Cathodoluminescence of a Selenium-alloyed CdTe Solar Cell"  47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2020.
  • Soňa Uličná, Farwah Bukhari, Fabiana Lisco, Gizelle C. Oehler, Kurt L. Barth and John M. Walls, " Outdoor testing of anti-soiling hydrophobic coatings", 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2020.
  •  Togay, Mustafa, Amit H. Munshi, Tushar Shimpi, Adam Danielson, Sampath S. Walajabad, Kurt L. Barth, Jake W. Bowers, Michael Walls, "Light-Induced Metastabilities in Highly Efficient MZO/CdSeTe/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells", 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2020. 
  • Shimpi, Tushar, Carey Reich Adam Danielson, Amit H. Munshi, Anna Kindvall, Ramesh Pandey, Kurt Barth, Walajabad Sampath, " Influence Of Process Parameters And Absorber Thickness On Efficiency Of Polycrystalline CdSeTe/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells ", oral 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, June 2020. 
  •  Fiducia, Thomas AM, Kexue Li, Amit H. Munshi, Kurt Barth, Walajabad S. Sampath, Chris RM Grovenor, and John Michael Walls. "Three-Dimensional Imaging of Selenium and Chlorine Distributions in Highly Efficient Selenium-Graded Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells." IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 10 (2) PP 685-689 (2020).
  •   T. M. Shimpi, A. Munshi, A. Danielson, C. Reich, A. Kindvall , R. Pandey, K. L. Barth and W. S. Sampath, “Progress and Challenges in Processing and Characterization of Poly-crystalline CdTe Solar Cells,” presented at Connecticut Microelectronics and Optoelectronics Consortium, 2020 {Invited paper}
  •   Fiducia, T.A., Mendis, B.G., Li, K., Grovenor, C.R., Munshi, A.H., Barth, K., Sampath, W.S., Wright, L.D., Abbas, A., Bowers, J.W. and Walls, J.M., 2019. Understanding the role of selenium in defect passivation for highly efficient selenium-alloyed cadmium telluride solar cells". Cover article. Nature Energy, 4(6), pp.504-511. 
  • Bittau, F., Jagdale, S., Potamialis, C., Bowers, J.W., Walls, J.M., Munshi, A.H., Barth, K.L. and Sampath, W.S., Degradation of Mg-doped zinc oxide buffer layers in thin film CdTe solar cells. Thin Solid Films, 691, p.137556. 2019
  •  Shimpi, T.M., Moffett, C., Sampath, W.S. and Barth, K.L. Materials selection investigation for thin film photovoltaic module encapsulation. Solar Energy, 187, pp.226-232. 2019
  • Barth, K.L., Morgante, J., Sampath, W.S. and Shimpi, T.M., 2019, June. Progress Towards a Non-Lamination Encapsulation Technology to Improve Reliability and Reduce Costs. In 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) (pp. 0495-0498). IEEE.
  • Greenhalgh, R.C., Tsai, V., Abbas, A., Kornienko, V., Fiducia, T.A.M., Togay, M., Li, K., Grovenor, C.R., Danielson, A.H., Munshi, A.H. and Barth, K.L., 2019, June. Analysis of MZO/CdTe photovoltaic device treated with cadmium bromide. In 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) (pp. 2489-2493). IEEE.
  •  Strauss, B., Lisco, F., Bukhari, F., Walls, J.M. and Barth, K.L., 2019, June. Novel hydrophobic coatings for soiling mitigation in the PV industry: Durability and Anti-Soiling demonstrations. In 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) (pp. 2899-2903). IEEE.
  •  T. M. Shimpi, A. Abbas, C. Reich, R. Pandey, A. Kindvall, K. L. Barth, J. M. Walls, and W. S. Sampath, “Progress Towards Fabrication of Polycrystalline Cd(1-x)ZnxTe Top Cell for Multi-junction Solar Cell,” presented at The U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials, 2019
  •  Shimpi, T. M., Swanson, D. E., Drayton, J., Abbas, A., Walls, J. M., Barth, K. L., & Sampath, W. S. (2018). CdS barrier to minimize Zn loss during CdCl2 treatment of Cd-Zn-Te absorbers. Solar Energy, 173, 1181-1188.
  •  Munshi, Amit H., Nikhil Sasidharan, Subin Pinkayan, Kurt L. Barth, W. S. Sampath, and Weerakorn Ongsakul. "Thin-film CdTe photovoltaics–The technology for utility scale sustainable energy generation." Solar Energy 173 (2018): 511-516.
  •  Munshi, Amit H., Jason Kephart, Ali Abbas, John Raguse, Jean-Nicolas Beaudry, Kurt Barth, James Sites, John Walls, and Walajabad Sampath. "Polycrystalline CdSeTe/CdTe Absorber Cells with 28 mA/cm 2 Short-Circuit Current." IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics 8, no. 1 (2018): 310-314.
  • Munshi, Amit H., Jason M. Kephart, Ali Abbas, Adam Danielson, Guillaume Gḗlinas, Jean-Nicolas Beaudry, Kurt L. Barth, John M. Walls, and Walajabad S. Sampath. "Effect of CdCl2 passivation treatment on microstructure and performance of CdSeTe/CdTe thin-film photovoltaic devices." Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 186 (2018): 259-265.
  •  Munshi, Amit H., Jason M. Kephart, Ali Abbas, Tushar M. Shimpi, Kurt L. Barth, John M. Walls, and Walajabad S. Sampath. "Polycrystalline CdTe photovoltaics with efficiency over 18% through improved absorber passivation and current collection." Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 176 (2018): 9-18. 

External collaborators

External roles

  • Co-Director, Center for a Solar Powered Future 2050 (SPF2050), CSU Site,  2012-2021
  • NSF I/UCRC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Walters Scott Jr. College of Engineering (formerly known as the Next Generation PV Center)
  • President and Founder, Direct Solar / Direct Engineering, 2012–present
  • Visiting Professor of Thin-Film Photovoltaics, 2021-2022 
  • Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, UK
  • Affiliate Faculty Member, Department of Mechanical Engineering, CSU, 2007 -2012
  • Founder, Board of Directors, VP Product Development, Abound Solar, 2007–2012