Ångström Thin Film Solar Cells - novel concepts for high efficiency

Time period:

1 January 2017 – 31 December 2019

Funder:

Swedish Energy Agency

Type of award:

Project grant

Total funding:

7,014,665 SEK

Thin film solar cells are commercial alternatives to the mature silicon solar cell technology. A promising market for thin film based on its aestethics and possibility for flexible and low weight products is building integration. In order to extract as much energy as possible from the available surfaces on a building, high efficiency and stability is a must! This project aims at developing thin film solar cells suitable as top cells in tandem solar cell applications. These cells need to absorb light with high photon energy and convert this light to electric energy with high efficiency, while being transparent to low energy light. In the project we will investigate how existing technologies based on the CIGS and its alloys with e.g. silver and sulfur, with the help of novel concepts can be made suitable for tandem solar cells. The final goal in the project is a top cell with 17 % efficiency, that enables fabrication of a tandem solar cell with 25 % efficiency.