Outlook

In 2010, the PV sector was estimated by the EU Solar Thermal Industry Federation to employ 33,500 workers and create one new job for every 80 kW of added capacity, making it one of the largest renewable energy industries in Europe. Despite policies to strengthen investment in solar energy which is considered on of the main pillars in the EU energy strategy, the silicon PV industry today faces both practical and economic efficiency constrains.

It is therefore of vital importance that new technologies are developed to overcome the weaknesses of silicon and revive the industry. CHEOPS has shown that the best alternative is silicon/perovskite solar cells which already show cell efficiencies close to 30%. With a theoretical efficiency limit of 33% for perovskite compared to 29% for silicon and the fact that tandem cells can harvest a broader spectrum of the light than conventional single cells. To revive and even accelerate the growth of solar energy generation globally, an easy innovation process to transfer the technology to production facilities is key. CHEOPS has shown that existing manufacturing methods used for conventional silicon devices – representing the vast majority of manufacturing sites globally only require minor modifications in order to be ready to produce tandem cells. Last but not least, the assessment of the socio-economic impact of the technology has shown that the environmental impact of large-scale production of tandem cells are inconsiderable compared to competing technologies. In essence, CHEOPS manifests itself as an extraordinary project with a truly excellent academic output that succeeded in breaking down barrier to commercialisation. CHEOPS combined the best of both worlds in photovoltaics and applied thorough innovation processes which resulted in substantial contributions to pave the way for European leadership in solar energy.

 

PerTPV

Driving the performance and fabrication methodologies of high-efficiency, low-cost perovskite solar cells.

The project is aiming to advance the perovskite thin-film PV technology to the next level by undertaking a “double pronged” drive on both performance (efficiency and stability) and the development of scalable device and module fabrication methodologies, compatible with high volume manufacturing.

 

IMPRESSIVE

ground-breakIng tandeM of transPaRent dyE SenSitIsed and peroVskite solar cElls

The main objective of the project is to develop transparent photovoltaic (PV) cells converting selectively UV and NIR part of the light while excluding the visible range to reach colourless and fully transparent devices. To reach this ground-breaking objective, the approach is based on hybrid tandem UV-perovskite solar cell and NIR-dye-sensitised solar cell.