Imec to lead €5 million EU Perovskite PV project
ESPResSo collaboration aims to bring perovskite PV technology to practical applications
Imec, the research and innovation hub, has been named the coordinator of an ambitious three-year European Union (EU) funded project, ESPResSo (Efficient Structures and Processes for Reliable Perovskite Solar Modules), that gathers leaders in the field of perovskite PV technology to revolutionise Europe's photovoltaics (PV) industry.
The ESPResSo consortium has been granted over €5M euro by the European Union to overcome the limitations of today's perovskite PV technology, bring perovskite solar cells to the next maturity level, and demonstrate their practical application.
The members of the consortium include the fundamental research organisations Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy; perovskite solar cell scale-up and industrialisation members Imec, Belgium, Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata (UNITOV-CHOSE), Italy and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Germany; and experts in sustainability and renewable energies CSGI (Consorzio Interuniversitario per lo Sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase), Italy and University of Cyprus, Cyprus.
Members representing materials development include Dycotec Materials, UK, Dyenamo , Sweden and Corning SAS, France; equipment manufacturer, M-Solv, UK; along with perovskite solar cell technology developers Saule Technologies, Poland, and building-integrated photovoltaics developer, Onyx Solar Energy SL, Spain.
With its low-cost materials and low temperature deposition processes, perovskite-based PV technology has the potential to takes its place in the thin-film PV market. Perovskite solar cells have already demonstrated high efficiencies (above 22 percent) that rival those of established mainstream thin-film PV technologies like CIGS and CdTe. The challenge is now to transfer the unprecedented progress that the perovskite PV cell technology has made in recent years from its cell level into a scalable, stable, low-cost technology on module level.
"Every aspect of our lives "“ from our homes to our workplaces, hospitals, schools and farms - depends on the nonstop availability of energy," stated Tom Aernouts, Imec group leader of thin-film photovoltaics. "Perovskite cells demonstrate clear potential to support world's energy demands cost-effectively. The ultimate aim of the partners of the ESPResSo project is to achieve this by bringing perovskite photovoltaics from the lab to the fab."
The ESPResSo team targets alternative cost effective materials, novel cell concepts and architectures, and advanced processing know-how and equipment to overcome the current limitations of this technology. The consortium aims to bring the cell performance close to its theoretical limit by demonstrating cell efficiency of more than 24 percent (on 1cm²) and less than 10 percent degradation in cell efficiency following thermal stress at 85degC, 85 percent RH for over 1000h.
Scale up activities utilising solution processed slot-die coating and laser processing will additionally deliver modules with more than 17 percent efficiency showing long-term (>20 years) reliable performance as deduced from IEC-compliant test conditions.
The ESPResSo team also envisions integrating modules in façade elements demonstrating a levelised cost of electricity (LCoE) of ≤ 0.05€/kWh. Prototyping advanced, arbitrary-shaped architectures with specific materials and process combinations will emphasise that new highly innovative applications like on flexible substrates or with high semi-transparency are well accessible in the mid- to longer-term with this very promising thin-film PV technology.
