European pilot line for perovskite tandem PVs
Horizon Europe project PEPPERONI aims to scale up the active area of perovskite/Si tandems
A pilot line focused on producing silicon/perovskite tandem PV cells will be established in Germany as part of a new Research and Innovation project -funded under Horizon Europe and jointly coordinated by Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and Qcells.
Called PEPPERONI, the four-year project will establish the line at Qcells’ European headquarters in Thalheim, Germany. With the help of 17 partners from 12 countries, the aim is to scale up the active area of perovskite/Si tandems from the 1cm2 of today’s record devices to industry-relevant dimensions.
Fabian Fertig, director Global R&D Wafer & Cells at Qcells, said: “This research promises to break new ground in the advancement of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell and module technology. At a time of unprecedented pressures on the current energy system, it is exciting to realise this first and transformative step towards industrial-scale manufacturing of next-generation PV technology in Europe.”
Bernd Stannowski, head of group Industry compatible processes, solar cells and modules at HZB said: “At HZB we have developed the tandem technology to world-record efficiency level on lab scale. We are now looking forward to cooperate in the PEPPERONI consortium with partners from science and industry to jointly scale this new and very promising technology up and transfer it to industry.”
PEPPERONI proposes to use a type of silicon bottom cell, which is based on technology that is already produced at a gigawatt scale globally: Q.ANTUM technology, which was first introduced in 2012 by Qcells.
