SynergyGate

26.01.2017

Prof. Christophe Ballif

 Objective & consortium

Objective
Extend the Synergy RDT project towards the commercialization of
high-efficiency tandem solar cells, based on a perovskite cell in
combination with either a wafer-based Si cell or a CIGS thin film cell

Consortium

Industrial partners

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 Current technology & products

Each SynergyGate industrial partners has expertise in one of

the high-performance photovoltaic technologies used in this
project:

All-printed low-cost
perovskite modules

Lightweight / flexible copper indium

gallium (di-) selenide (CIGS) panels

High-efficiency silicon heterojunction

cell & module production equipment

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Industrial partners:

All-printed perovskite modules

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Industrial partners:

Selected demonstrations

Residential roof integration Standing seam profile integration Flex series FULL FLEXIBILTIY

Membrane structure integration Rollable solar array

Cladding element for facades Semi-flex series ALU BACKSHEET

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Industrial partners:
Demonstrator line at Meyer Burger Germany Si HJ cells being processed SmartWire module

Courtesy J. Zhao

cell, and m odule line

h ete rojun c tion wafer,
Silicon

Diamond Wire Heterojunction Technology SmartWire Connection Technology

Technology

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 Photovoltaics market
Cost-benchmark for PV power plants
0.55-0.8 /W at 17-21% module efficiency
Electricity at 5 cts/kWh in sunny countries

Photovolatics market
Global PV market:
Source: www.itrpv.net
57 GW new installations in 2015,
100 GW expected in 2020
Building attached PV:
19 GW in 2014,
25-37 GW expected by 2019
Source: EMPA NEST
Building-integrated PV:
ca. 1 GW in 2015,
PV market forecast
up to 13 GW expected in 2021

How to gain market share in this fast growing but highly

competitive market?

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 Costs of photovoltaic electricity
Source: Fraunhofer ISE PV report 2016
PV system:
Solar module
Inverter
Balance of system
Installation

Current PV electricity costs:

Module production costs rapidly decreased in recent years to currently <50%,
i.e. cell costs are only ~25-33% of total system costs

Costs of PV systems can most effectively be further reduced by

improved module performance at moderate additional costs

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How to reach ultra-high efficiency?

26.3 %

Tandem solar cells can reach efficiencies > 30%

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 PV market forecast
Tandem cells
Market share

Source: www.itrpv.net

Tandem cells expected to enter the market in

4-5 years, with increasing market share

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 Tandem solar cells

Combination of 2 sub-cells: 4-terminal tandem

Top cell: Absorbs visible light
Bottom cell: Absorbs infrared light
>30% efficiency have been reached with
tandems, but only using expensive top cells

How can high-efficiency tandems be made

with low-cost cells? Monolithic tandem

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 SynergyGate approach

Silicon heterojunction CuInGaSe2 (CIGS)

Demonstrator 1: Demonstrator 2:
silicon heterojunction / CIGS / perovskite all
perovskite tandem thin film tandem

Metal halide perovskites

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 SynergyGate approach

Silicon heterojunction CuInGaSe2 (CIGS)

Demonstrator 1: Demonstrator 2:
silicon heterojunction / CIGS / perovskite all
perovskite tandem thin film tandem

Metal halide perovskites

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 Demonstrator 1: Technology
J.Werner et al. JPCL 7, 161-166 (2016)

Monolithic perovskite/silicon heterojunction tandem cell

Perovskite cell is directly deposited onto silicon bottom cell using low-
temperature deposition processes
More challenging than 4-terminal tandems due to processing restrictions
(temperature, surface roughness, electrical polarity of cells)
Tandem efficiency up to 21.2% reached on 0.25 cm2 cells, well above
both sub-cell efficiencies of 16-17%

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 Demonstrator 1: Specifications

Key developments during project:

Up-scaling of monolithic tandem cells
1
to size of 5 cm x 5 cm
Industrially-compatible metallization to 2
2
reduce usage of precious metals
Reliable and cheap encapsulation 1
3
processes to improve module lifetime 3

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 Demonstrator 1: Up-scaling

Perovskite mini-module Tandem cell up-scaling

0.17 cm2

1.22 cm2

Uniform perovskite layer by optimized recipe

Laser scribing to define and interconnect segments
Aperture area: 12 cm2
Aperture area efficiency 11.5%

Area (cm2) PCE (%) Voc (mV) Jsc (mA/cm2) FF (%)

10.9 12.6 6520.5 15.8(seg) 73.4
(active area)
module
12 11.5 6520.5 14.4(seg) 73.4
(aperture area)
Tandem cell with 16
Ref 0.49 15.5 1014.0 20.1 75.9
cm2 active area
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 Demonstrator 1: Metallization

Screen-printed silver paste to replace

evaporated gold electrodes:
Half the shadow losses at same
sheet resistance
Strongly reduced precious metal
consumption
Fully up-scalable industrial standard
process

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 Demonstrator 1: Encapsulation

Encapsulation process

Front glass

Polymer encapsulant

Edge sealant

Tandem cell contacted

with metal ribbons

Edge sealant

Rear glass

Encapsulated 16 cm2 perovskite /

silicon heterojunction tandem cell

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 SynergyGate approach

Silicon heterojunction CuInGaSe2 (CIGS)

Demonstrator 1: Demonstrator 2:
silicon heterojunction / CIGS / perovskite all
perovskite tandem thin film tandem

Metal halide perovskites

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 Demonstrator 2: Technology

VOC (V) JSC (mA/cm2) FF (%) (%) mpp(%) Area (cm2)

Flexible CIGS 0.668 34.8 77.2 17.9 17.7 0.213

Flexible CIGS bottom cell 0.632 12.6 77.3 6.1 6 0.213

Flexible Perovskite top cell 1.08 16.18 68.5 11.93 12.2 0.285

4-Terminal flexible perovskite/CIGS tandem solar cell with 18.2% efficiency

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 Demonstrator 2: Technology (2)
Full 1 sun illumination, cell in vacuum

Infrared-transparent perovskite cell with

improved stability
Initial efficiency of 16.1% for 0.28 cm2 cell
on glass substrate
Modified layer stack leads to improved
stability at elevated temperature

F. Fu et al., Nature Energy 2, 16190 (2016)

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 Demonstrator 2: Concept

Tandem Solar Cells Flexible Solar Cells

Beyond single-junction efficiency limit Lightweight devices
High-throughput R2R manufacturing

Flexible Tandem Solar Cells

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 Demonstrator 2: Specifications

SynergyGate
Key developments during project:
1 2
Development of flexible, infrared-
1 transparent perovskite cell for 4-
terminal perovskite / CIGS tandems
Proof-of-concept of laser-based
2 interconnections for tandem solar
modules on flexible substrates and beyond
3
Providing a basis for future
3 development of large area deposition
and implementation into production line

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 Impact Summary

Scientific / Technological Impact:

Development of industrially-viable processes for tandem cells based on
a perovskite top cell combined with either a silicon heterojunction or
flexible CIGS bottom cell

Economic Impact:
Extending the product portfolio of the industrial partners with solutions
for high-performance tandem modules is expected to support them to be
successful in the fast growing but competitive photovoltaics market

Impact on Society:
Potential to strongly reduce photovoltaic electricity costs, accelerating
the transition to a sustainable future

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Thank you for your attention!

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 Contributions of industrial partners
All SynergyGate industrial partners showed strong commitment and interest in
continuing collaboration with the research partners after the project ended:

Provided chemicals and substrates

Roadmap for perovskite technology
commercialization
Follow-up CTI project on perovskite modules with
CSEM

Provided flexible CIGS bottom cells suitable for

tandem integration
Joint development of laser scribing processes for
flexible perovskite modules

Development of single-side-textured silicon bottom

cells suitable for monolithic tandem integration
Consulting on integration of tandems into modules
with advanced interconnection schemes

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