Back contact engineering for high performance kesterite solar cells

The growth in distribution applications defines a new era for photovoltaics. Envisioned to be deployed widely in, for example, smart cities and Internet of Things, "self-powered" distributed applications will be required to harvest energy from surrounding energy sources. Thin film photovoltaics devices fabricated from the kesterite absorber Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1-x)4 (CZTSSe) combine high efficiency, low-cost and non-toxic materials, providing an attractive energy harvesting solution for the vast number of distributed applications in healthcare, transportation, construction, aerospace and consumer devices. Kesterite solar cells have the added benefit of solution-based fabrication via nanoparticle inks (Y. Qu, et al,. Prog. Photovolt. 2016) which is compatible with high volume and high value manufacturing.
The ability to manufacture high efficiency CZTSSe thin film solar cells depends on achieving sufficiently high open circuit voltage. In this project, we aim to fabricate high performance CZTSSe solar cells by engineering the interface at the back contact.

ReNU's enhanced doctoral training programme delivered by three uniquely co-located major UK universities, Northumbria (UNN), Durham (DU) and Newcastle (NU), addresses clear skills needs in small-to-medium scale renewable energy (RE) and sustainable distributed energy (DE). It was co-designed by a range of companies and is supported by a balanced portfolio of 27 industrial partners (e.g. Airbus, Siemens and Shell) of which 12 are small or medium size enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. Enocell, Equiwatt and Power Roll). A further 9 partners include Government, not-for-profit and key network organisations. Together these provide a powerful, direct and integrated pathway to a range of impacts that span whole energy systems.

Industrial partners will interact with ReNU in three main ways: (1) through the Strategic Advisory Board; (2) by providing external input to individual doctoral candidate's projects; and (3) by setting Industrial Challenge Mini-Projects. These interactions will directly benefit companies by enabling them to focus ReNU's training programme on particular needs, allowing transfer of best practice in training and state-of-the-art techniques, solution approaches to R&D challenges and generation of intellectual property. Access to ReNU for new industrial partners that may wish to benefit from ReNU is enabled by the involvement of key networks and organisations such as the North East Automotive Alliance, the Engineering Employer Federation, and Knowledge Transfer Network (Energy).

In addition to industrial partners, ReNU includes Government organisations and not for-profit-organisations. These partners provide pathways to create impact via policy and public engagement. Similarly, significant academic impact will be achieved through collaborations with project partners in Singapore, Canada and China. This impact will result in research excellence disseminated through prestigious academic journals and international conferences to the benefit of the global community working on advanced energy materials.