My name is Brett Hallam.

I'm an Associate Professor specialising in Solar Engineering in UNSW Sydney.

Australia is a world leader in using rooftop solar.

More than 30% of houses have solar panels and this is a fantastic achievement.

Ironically, when we put solar panels out on our rooftops or in the field, they can lose some of their performance when exposed to sunlight.

I lead the research team here on how to stop this degradation in solar panels, and this is following on from work that started during my PhD, supervised by the late Professor Wenham.

My work is focused on developing new technologies to make solar panels cheaper, more efficient and more reliable.

We have developed a world-first technology here at UNSW, using light and heat to activate hydrogen and use that hydrogen to neutralise defects in solar cells that we put into solar panels.

This process is known as hydrogen passivation.

This technology has been patented and commercialised worldwide and now features in more than 95% of solar panels being installed in Australia or around the world.

This technology provided benefits to Australian consumers of around $500 million, globally around $17 billion.

My goal now is to help address some of the biggest problems as we continue to deploy renewable energy technologies like solar at scale.

This is really important as the solar industry continues to expand by at least a factor of ten over the next decade.

What I love about my job is working with an amazing team and seeing how they grow as the technology grows.

To receive the Prize for New Innovators is really exciting, and I'm extremely honoured, and in particular because it's from the technology we developed during my PhD with the late Professor Wenham.

I hope my work can help inspire other researchers as they continue to grow and fall in love with science.