$4 Million for Roll-to-Roll Printing Scale-Up of Perovskite Solar PV Panels
Energy Materials Corporation (EMC) announced that the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office selected EMC to advance perovskite photovoltaic module research and development.
The Energy Department's selection supports EMC's ongoing scale-up of high efficiency and stable perovskite solar modules. Leveraging existing pilot scale manufacturing facilities at the Eastman Business Park in Rochester, N.Y., the project will demonstrate high speed printing of entire perovskite devices on paper-thin flexible glass, including the transparent conductor layers that are traditionally done by costly vacuum deposition techniques. Ultimately, EMC will fabricate entire BackbonePV™ perovskite panels on high speed, roll-to-roll manufacturing lines.
"Unlocking the potential of solar energy to become a relevant portion of global energy generation requires a new manufacturing technology for solar panels that is scalable and sustainable," stated Dr. Stephan DeLuca, EMC Chief Executive Officer.
"EMC's high-speed printing process can lower the cost of building solar panel factories by 95%, and reduce the selling price of high efficiency modules by 50%. At these disruptive cost points, our gigawatt scale factories can be rapidly replicated in the U.S. and around the world to fill local demand while supporting the industry's determination to reach unsubsidized $0.02 kWh solar energy,” added DeLuca.
"The U.N.'s 2050 emissions goal challenges our industry to expand from the current 700GW installed to more than sixteen terawatts globally in the next thirty years. Combined with existing workhorse module technologies, this type of manufacturing innovation is an urgently needed compliment to meet that timeline," said Frank Depew, CEO of Urban Grid, a national utility scale solar developer.
EMC was selected as a part of the Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2019 funding program, an effort to invest in new projects that will lower solar electricity costs, while working to boost solar manufacturing, reduce red tape, and make solar systems more resilient to cyberattack. EMC is one of several photovoltaics research projects that will focus on improving the performance and reliability of PV cells, modules, and systems and reducing materials and processing costs.
