Low-cost printed flexible solar cells as substitute for current (1st and 2nd generation) photovoltaics for building integrated applications in India
Lead Research Organisation:
Swansea University
Department Name: College of Engineering
Abstract
Climate change and the 'energy trilemma' (sustainability, security, equity) are global challenges that effect us all, but most of all, the populations of developing countries.
India in particular has a currently unsustainable energy system that causes extreme pollution, is unreliable and unaffordable for many average people.
the Indian Government is working incredibly hard to address these challenges and has set an ambitious target to generate 57% of India's energy from renewables by 2027.
This project aims to contribute to these target by developing a solar energy product that is low-cost to manufacture in terms of set up costs, materials and energy consumption. The project will use well understood printing processes to scale-up recent advances in perovskite photovoltaic (PV) research to produce prototype, building integrated solar energy products tested to industry standards.
Working in collaboration with a leading UK company of building integrated photovoltaics and an Indian cleantech finance firm, the project will transfer the innovation to the context of India where it can be locally manufactured and deployed in accordance with the Indian Government initiative of 'Make in India'. It is the goal of the project to create one or more new ventures in India to complete the local supply-chain required to successfully bring the product to market, creating jobs and economic growth in the region.
India in particular has a currently unsustainable energy system that causes extreme pollution, is unreliable and unaffordable for many average people.
the Indian Government is working incredibly hard to address these challenges and has set an ambitious target to generate 57% of India's energy from renewables by 2027.
This project aims to contribute to these target by developing a solar energy product that is low-cost to manufacture in terms of set up costs, materials and energy consumption. The project will use well understood printing processes to scale-up recent advances in perovskite photovoltaic (PV) research to produce prototype, building integrated solar energy products tested to industry standards.
Working in collaboration with a leading UK company of building integrated photovoltaics and an Indian cleantech finance firm, the project will transfer the innovation to the context of India where it can be locally manufactured and deployed in accordance with the Indian Government initiative of 'Make in India'. It is the goal of the project to create one or more new ventures in India to complete the local supply-chain required to successfully bring the product to market, creating jobs and economic growth in the region.
Planned Impact
The project goal is the deployment of an affordable, low-cost, solar (renewable) photovoltaic technology that is based on earth abundant (sustainable) materials. This goal is wholly in alignment with NERC's mission to promote responsible management of the planet.
Successful delivery of the project outputs will materially contribute to the Indian Government energy targets / strategy.
The Project Partners involved will benefit through the opportunity to adopt / invest in new technological solutions aligned to their existing business models.
Successful delivery of the project outputs will materially contribute to the Indian Government energy targets / strategy.
The Project Partners involved will benefit through the opportunity to adopt / invest in new technological solutions aligned to their existing business models.
| Description | The research work for this grant is now complete and has been achieved with very limited research time as the COVID period dominated almost the entirety of the project period. With limited but targeted laboratory access and collaboration we have been able to make progress with the outlined research. The over-arching purpose of this grant is to develop a processing technology that will take single strips of low-cost printed solar cells and turn them into usable photovoltaic modules. The potential impact of this is to nucleate a commercial activity on the design and development of printed solar cells for applications such as IoT, lightweight aerospace and building integration. Key follow-on funding is the EPSRC ATIP programme grant (EP/T028513/1) which runs until 2025. The project is split into 2 predominant work-packages. The first describes the development of the baseline single-strip printed solar cells and the second develops the product further by engineering a module structure through a process known as interconnection (where single strips are combined together). The first WP has largely been completed during this initial stage with the development of a single strip printed solar cell. In order to deliver on this an alternative safe-solvent system was developed that would allow the transition of the work from benchtop to roll to roll scale. This has proved to be technically challenging and we invested significant research in understanding how to synthesis the ink material, store it with a reasonable shelf life and deposit the layers sequentially and orthogonally to each other. This has been achieved and is reproducible representing an important advance in the overall field. The second work package entails the design and process development for an interconnected module, both design of the layering structure to ensure good active v dead area balance and fabrication method using slot-die. This project has been particularly impacted by COVID and was granted a 4 month no-cost extension based on known and anticipated covid disruption and the maximum currently allowable under current ODA funding constraints. |
| Exploitation Route | The work funded here has played a critical enabler not only in developing interactions with Indian partners and laser partners but also in solving some of the initial challenges on the road to commercializing and industrializing perovskite solar cells with low capital cost entry points suitable for the Indian industrial base. The work will continue, certainly beyond the COVID pandemic, through work funded by EPSRC and by directly linking with Indian industrial base. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Environment |
| Description | This project has been particularly impacted by COVID and has been granted a 4 month no-cost extension based on known and anticipated covid disruption and the maximum currently allowable under current ODA funding constraints. Work package 1: Reproducible production of single strip device stack via roll to roll: (Complete - draft paper in preparation, we opted to extend this work to include a carbon top-contact which adds additional complexity but had the potential to provide a world first, this work and draft preparation is on-going with likely completion Q2 2022) This work entailed the sequential deposition of 4 layers of the device stack continuously using a slot-die coating method in-order to illustrate the manufacturing potential for the process. In particular the focus was maintained around lowering the fabrication complexity in order to ensure the viability for future technology transfer to address the Indian manufacturing base. Work package 2: Product and Process development: Following the success of the single strip deposition, the product and process development pathway was considered for interconnected modules, in essence a method by which the single printed line can be deposited such that it has overlapping electrodes at set intervals in order to create an increase in the overall voltage. In particular, the creation of a module design proposal for print registration and mechanical scribing was considered. Print registration trials were carried out in the extension period of the project confirming feasibility with a caveat around a reduced active area and geometric fill factor. This approach would likely not be a commercial success as the active area to dead area ratio was not sufficiently competitive. In advancing this position and moving to later parts of the project initial trials on the mechanical scribing approach, which offers a 10-20% increase in active area have indicated that it is feasible with careful optimization. A draft publication is in preparation on the potential of mechanical scribing for use in flexible perovskite solar cells and modules. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Construction,Education,Energy,Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics - Enhancing UK Capability in Solar |
| Amount | £5,991,738 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T028513/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2020 |
| End | 06/2025 |
| Description | Linked informally with Laser manufacturers, Oxford Lasers and Coherent Rofin |
| Organisation | Oxford Lasers Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Part of the project delivery requires us to develop a laser ablation process (WP2/M4c) for interconnection which includes identification of the most appropriate laser and the pulse/fluency. Although not a formal collaboration/partnership, we have linked with a number of laser manufacturers (Oxford Lasers / Coherent Rofin) to provide samples for some initial exploratory testing. These have now been returned and have satisfied the objective to identify the laser ablation settings for the P2 and P3 scribing process. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Testing samples to identify the laser ablation settings for the P2 and P3 scribing process. |
| Impact | Ongoing research is being conducted. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Presentation by Dr Katherine Hooper at PVSAT/Supersolar conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The work was presented at the PVSAT/Supersolar conference on the 9th June 2021, Dr Katherine Hooper (Swansea University) "Design and development of roll-to-roll slot-die coated perovskite modules" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.supersolar-hub.org/event/supersolar-pvsat-conference-2021/ |