Boosting PV in the EU

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) has launched a €10 million (about $12.2 million) European Union-funded project to develop affordable, more efficient solar cells.

Thin-film solar cell technologies have the potential to offer higher material utilization and lower module costs than traditional wafer-based silicon solar cells because they use light-absorbing materials that are about 100 times thinner than silicon wafers.

Photovoltaics at Empa. (Image: Empa)

Thin-film technologies based on the substance class of chalcogenides, such as copper indium gallium (di)selenide, deliver the highest efficiencies and are already in mass production. However, current production methods rely on vacuum-based deposition processes that are difficult to control over large surfaces and require expensive equipment, counteracting the potential reduction of material costs inherent to thin-film technologies.

To overcome this challenge, the EU-funded international Scalenano project (“Development and scale-up of nanostructure-based materials and processes for low-cost, high-efficiency chalcogenide-based photovoltaics”) will develop alternative, vacuum-free processes based on the electrodeposition of nanostructured precursors. The project, which runs until mid-2015, will also explore and develop alternative processes with high throughput and process rates, along with their extension to the next generation of kesterite absorbers that use only cheap, abundant elements.

Empa’s Thin Films and Photovoltaics lab will contribute to the project by investigating solution- and nanoparticle-based deposition of kesterite absorbers, front electrical contacts of transparent conducting oxides and supplying reference solar cells prepared by vacuum-based techniques.

Results from the project could find applications in smart windows and batteries, said project leader Yaroslav Romanyuk.

For more information, visit: www.empa.ch