Towards commercialisation of Perovskite PV and development of dedicated manufacturing equipment (EUPI-PV Partnership)

Expected Outcome

The rapid development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) over the past decade makes it the most promising next generation photovoltaic technology, owing to its prominent advantages such as tuneable bandgap, high absorption coefficients, uncomplicated preparation process and considerable power conversion efficiency which has reached a certified 26.7% at cell level. Tremendous efforts in material and device engineering have also increased moisture, heat, and light-related stability. All these features render perovskite solar modules suitable for terawatt-scale energy production with a low levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). A number of companies are working on PSCs and some of them, have been establishing new pilot production lines and/or expanding production capacity. Still, the greatest challenges toward commercialisation are scaling up (including ambient manufacturing), achieving long-term stability, reducing, or eliminating the use of toxic solvents, and preventing Pb leakage into the environment.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Increase the potential for commercialisation of perovskite PV creating competitive technological know-how for the European PV industrial base;
• Support a European economic base which is stronger, more resilient, competitive, and fit for the green and digital transitions, by reducing strategic dependencies for critical raw materials and components;
• Support the execution of the solar energy joint research and innovation agenda[1].

Scope

Metal halide perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention because of their low-cost fabrication and high efficiency. In addition, tandem devices, especially perovskite-Si tandems, are expected to play an important role in perovskite commercialisation. Poor stability of these devices remains however the key challenge in their path toward commercialisation. To overcome this issue, a robust encapsulation technique by employing suitable materials and structures with high barrier performance against the external environment must be developed to protect perovskite devices. Dedicated manufacturing processes and equipment need also be demonstrated. Therefore, proposals are expected to address all of the following aspects:

• Demonstrate effective strategies to enhance the optoelectronic properties, performance and stability, and minimise the environmental impact of perovskite devices;
• Scale-up reliable deposition of high-quality perovskite films over large areas, (overcoming the degradation of efficiency as device/module areas scale up) but also patterning and interconnections to connect individual cells into modules;
• Demonstrate internal and external encapsulation structures as protection from extrinsic environmental stressors, such as moisture, oxygen, heat, and illumination;
• Develop module designs considering recyclability requirements and restrictions as to the control and management of toxic Pb2+ that could be produced by the irreversible deterioration of the perovskite materials;
• Assess performance and reliability according to international standards and compared with well-established PV technologies; develop and apply test protocols for performance and reliability tailored to the features of perovskite and/or perovskite-Si tandem technology.
• Demonstrate suitable equipment adapted to the specific requirements of perovskite (or perovskite-Si tandem) production process.

Proposals are expected to involve multidisciplinary consortia including at least one perovskite or equipment manufacturer.

Whenever the expected exploitation of project results entails developing, creating, manufacturing and marketing a product or process, or in creating and providing a service, the plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results must include a strategy for such exploitation. The exploitation plan should include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan) indicating the possible funding sources to be potentially used (in particular the Innovation Fund).

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership for Innovation in Photovoltaics (EUPI-PV). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership for Innovation in Photovoltaics (EUPI-PV) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

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Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.

[1] Commission Staff Working Document "Solar energy joint research and innovation agenda with Member States in the context of the European Research Area (ERA)"