The consumption of energy is an essential factor for economic growth. A sustainable growth of a regions GDP demands usage of renewable energy sources among which solar energy is the resource with by far highest potential. The SOLARIS initiative, being a lighthouse research projects at UiO, has the objective to significantly advance the field of solar energy materials science and by promoting the shift towards green economy in long-term perspective.
The SOLARIS initiative is creating an interdisciplinary platform at UiO that will initiate national and international research collaborations in various solar energy related areas. At UiO SOLARIS will, for instance, advance photovoltaics (PV) and solar fuel production by photo- or PV-driven electrocatalysis for which novel functional compounds shall be discovered by combinatorial material science. The approach combines the creation of multinary material libraries by combinatorial thin film deposition and physical and chemical property mapping of these libraries by high-throughput characterization methods.