Socioeconomic Viability Study

Objectives

The research undertaken in CHEOPS was holistically evaluated through three main analyses 1) a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), 2) a Socio-Economic Analysis (SEA) and 3) Cost of Ownership Analysis (CoO). This was a first step towards shaping a sustainable framework for the future development of perovskite photovoltaic solar cells.

Achievements

The main results from the risk assessment and roadmap development are:

  • Detailed outline of environmental impact for PK technologies in CHEOPS
  • Holistic analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of CHEOPS’ technology
  • Identification of risks associated to business development in the domain of perovskite photovoltaics technologies

Results

Involvement

Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (Project Coordinator)

CSEM, Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), founded in 1984, is a private non-profit applied research and development center specializing in micro- and nanotechnology, systems engineering, photovoltaics, microelectronics, and communications technologies. It offers its customers and industry partners custom-made, innovative solutions based on its knowledge of the market and the technological expertise derived from applied research.

The CSEM PV-center is an industry driven, application oriented program within CSEM created to bring new high-tech solutions for solar components and systems to technological maturity, and serve the global renewable energy industry. The PV-center is able to provide a full range of services to partners, ranging from technology development to product prototyping including the realization of full-size demonstration systems. The infrastructure of the PV-center includes specialty systems for coating, patterning, printing, and fabrication processes, as well as pilot manufacturing lines – from glass cleaning and wafer etching up to the assembly of fully functional PV modules and systems.

INERIS

Founded in 1990, INERIS is a public research agency, with industrial and commercial purposes, under the supervision of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Planning. INERIS’ mission is to assess and prevent accidental and chronic risks to people and the environment generated by industrial activities, chemical substances and underground works. INERIS is engaged in two main sorts of research and activities:

Characterisation and understanding of the phenomena that underlie the risks affecting safety or property of people, health and environment as a result of economic activities;

Improvement of the identification and evaluation of such risks in order to enable decision makers in the public and private sectors to adopt the most appropriate measures to improve environmental safety.

SmartGreenScans

SmartGreenScans was founded in 2009 and is a Dutch consultancy company specialised in performing Life Cycle Assessments of Photovoltaics to determine life-cycle environmental impacts and resource depletion, including evaluation of Carbon Footprint, Toxicity and other environmental impacts, energy payback time and life-cycle emissions to air and water.

Oxford PV Ltd

Oxford PV is the technology leader in the field of perovskite solar cells. Established in 2010, as a spin-out from the University of Oxford, the company today has the largest team globally, exclusively focused on developing and commercialising perovskite based solar technology. Oxford PV has a research & development site in Oxford, UK and an industrial site in Brandenburg, Germany enabling the accelerated transfer of their technology to industrial scale solar cell production.

Oxford PV’s disruptive perovskite solar technology has the potential to enable efficiency gains that will transform the economics of silicon solar technology and help accelerate the proliferation of solar energy generation globally.

Merck KGaA

Merck is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 39,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to further the success of our customers and to help meet global challenges. We generated total revenues of € 11.1 billion in 2013 with our three segments: Healthcare, Performance Materials and Life Science.

Merck products are known and established throughout the world. Whether our medicines of biological origin, over-the-counter products, products for allergen immunotherapy, liquid crystals for LC displays, Merck pigments for the coatings, plastics and printing industries as well as lab solutions for pharmaceutical research and biotechnology – products and services from Merck enjoy a high level of trust everywhere.