The prize committee especially highlighted Dr Bett’s contributions in the field of solar PV concentrator technology, and particularly his spearheading role in the development of monolithic cascade solar PV cells. Dr Bett’s team posted a world record efficiency of 41.1% in January 2009, using a special method of metamorphic crystal growth.

Dr Bett’s greatest achievement, however, remains the FLATCON® principle with which he brought solar PV concentrator technology to the market. Bett is a co-founder of Concentrix Solar GmbH, an ISE spinoff that successfully markets this solar PV technology today.

One of the most prestigious solar awards, the Prize is named after French scientist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, who discovered the PV effect in 1839.