Das Projekt "Effiziente Duennschichtsolarzelle auf der Grundlage von CuInS2" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin GmbH durchgeführt. General Information: The primary goal of the project is the demonstration of a small area, 15 per cent efficient thin film solar cell which is free of Cd and Se and uses a small number of elements. This goal shall be achieved by a CuInS2 based solar cell (SULFURCELL). The avoidance of Cd and Se and the restriction of the number of different elements incorporated in the cell will reduce production and recycling costs as well as environmental impacts. Development and optimization will be performed on all constituent components of the cell, i.e. substrate, back contact, absorber, buffer and transparent front contact. The ternary chalcopyrite CuInS2 has an optimum band-gap and potential for high efficiency and high open circuit voltages facilitating the module design. Extrinsic doping and growth assistance will be used to improve the opto-electronical properties of CuInS2 as required for the project's goal. Cd free buffer layers with a suitable conduction band alignment to CuInS2 have to be developed. Novel concepts such as aerosol based techniques, spin coating and band-gap engineering by quantum confinement will be pursued. Transparent conductive oxides such as ZnO, ITO and SnO, deposited by sputtering or MOCVD are used as front contacts after optimization of transparency, conductivity and haze. Valuable input for these tasks is expected from characterization methods such as transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The material science aspects will be supplemented by the investigation of topics especially important for scaling-up and commercial exploitation, e.g. substrate and patterned back-contact cost reduction, encapsulation and stability tests. The results of all sub-tasks will be used as input for an exploitation study.
Das Projekt "Produktbeschreibung, Entwicklung der Pilotanlage und Einschaetzung des Marktpotentials fuer Kupfer-Indiumdisulfid-(CuInS2)-Solarzellen auf Kupferbandsubstrat" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Institut für Solartechnologien durchgeführt. General Information: It is proposed to undertake a substantial technologically oriented research and development effort in the field of copper indium disulphide (CuInS2) solar cells, based on the innovative approach using copper tape substrates. The emphasis is on bringing the present laboratory scale development into the pilot plant stage and in parallel to identify technically the product area's which are most suitable for the earliest production scenario, together with a market potential evaluation. The combined expertise and experience of the proposed partners will have a strong impact on this important new development. Some important features of this new development are: - large degree of freedom in product design, from large-area, high power to small area indoor, from flexible to rigid, - non-toxic, - low material costs, - ease of up scaling and - low production costs due to continuous in-line processing, atmospheric pressure processes, high throughput and low investment costs. The industrial partners work on solar cell optimisation and marketing and development strategies parallel to the project. The three main objectives of this project are: - To evaluate the market potential for this innovative approach, related to the special features. - To design a pilot plant for the most likely first product. - To construct demonstration modules for the various product ranges. After the successful introduction of this new technology by the respective industrial partner, these objectives are realistic targets. In order to reach the goals it is proposed to perform a multidisciplinary research effort. Reaching from device-physical aspects covered by the university partner, solar cell characterization and process development by the university and the research institutes, product assembly and pilot plant design by the research institutes and the industrial partners to market and economic analysis mainly by the industrial partners. To guarantee the successful fulfilment of these efforts the project is tightly scheduled and divided into one management task (task 1) and five technical tasks. The solid starting point for this development is the copper indium disulphide solar cell material on copper tape substrates processed role-to-roll already available at the beginning of the project. This is the starting point to understand the junction physics, for window layer development, for interconnection studies, for prototype fabrication and for pilot plant design. The output of all of this will serve as input for the market potential evaluation. Prime Contractor: Netherlands Energy Research Foundation; Petten/Netherlands.