PROPRESS - Productionising Printing Enhancements to Silicon Solar Cells

The PROPRESS programme is aiming to deliver significant cost savings in the production of solar-cell electrodes. Currently silver is predominantly used as an electrode material due to its high conductivity and excellent chemical compatibility. However, silver has increased in cost significantly over recent years increasing the drive to find more economic alternatives whilst retaining cell lifetime and performance. The programme aims to deliver an integrated innovative electrode structure using alternative nano ink technologies. These nanoinks combined with novel curing and fast printing processes, will offer significant cost reductions, but will also increase cell life and increase efficiency. The aim will be to develop these inks with an experimental demonstrator showing increased performance over conventional electrode structures. The consortium consists of distinguished specialist partners – Narec Solar and C-Tech Innovation Ltd., with Intrinsiq Materials leading the programme and providing their novel nanoink and particle sintering expertise.