PREBOLD, 17^th of December 2008 – In prominent company BISOL takes part in project »All-inorganic nano-rod based thin-film solar cells« in scope of Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7). Project partners want to increase European competitiveness in the field of thin film photovoltaics. The increase will affect PV modules manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and the scientific community. Estimated value of the project is over 10 millions euro. European Commission’s co-funding amounts to nearly 3 millions euro.

Every industry needs basic research which is of paramount importance for its development. Photovoltaic industry is in a way specific since at first glance it bases on a simple product – a solar cell. However the complexity of the basic research in the photovoltaic industry stems from expensive material research. Photon absorber is basic material of every solar cell. It transforms energy of the impeding photons into the energy of electrons. When these effectively collected at the opposite contacts they contribute to the photo voltage and/or electric current. Therefore it is a material which is used as the absorber layer which sets the thickness required for an efficient light absorption.  

In photovoltaic industry silicon is leading material for solar cell production. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar cells are representatives of the first generation photovoltaics. In these days they have a 90 % share in an overall solar cell production. Since their beginnings in early 60’s this technology has matured and reached its upper thermo dynamical limits in single junction devices. For some time a massive production has been pointing to their basic drawback – a thick absorber layer. The absorber thickness, high energy consumption in the silicon purification process and its low yield have become the bottleneck which inhibits further cost reduction and reduces its competitiveness towards other solar cells technologies. Photovoltaic sector strives to find new silicon technologies for better solar cell output. Thin film silicon solar cells will eventually become a leading solar cell technology. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon (Si) solar cells are head representatives of the thick film devices while the amorphous silicon (a-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and the chalcopyrite (CIGS) devices comprise a class of thin film solar cells. With the pitfalls of the current thin film solar cells (low conversion efficiency of a-Si solar cells, toxic Cd in CdTe solar cells and technological complexity of CIGS solar cell), thin film silicon solar cells seem to be the most promising choice.

With the latest achievements on the field of nanotechnology some intrinsic obstacles will be overcame: a low absorption of light and the grain boundary recombination. Fabrication of the thin film silicon solar cells with the conversion efficiency above 10 % and the transformation of the laboratory technology into a mass production is the objective of the project. According to project group thin-film cells could represent about 20 % of the PV technology installed worldwide in 2012.

Due to the project’s extreme technological difficulty the team comprise prominent research institutes on the field of nanotechnology (Institute of Photonic Technology Jena, Max-Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, IBM – T.J. Watson Research Center, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Hungarian Academy of Science – Research Institute for Technical Physics and Material Science, Austrian Research Center – Nano-System_Technologies), manufacturers of the deposition and the nanorod synthesis equipment (VTT Micro and Nanoelectronics, PICOSUN, Aixtron), a consulting company for the market analysis and the technology watch (WTC technology consulting) and company BISOL. BISOL has an important role in all project phases: in the materials development phase, in the materials integration and testing phase and in the final phase of the dissemination and exploitation of the results.

The Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) bundles all research-related EU initiatives together under a common roof playing a crucial role in reaching the EU goals of growth, competitiveness and employment.

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