OSI - One Step Interconnect for Thin Film PV Modules

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor J Walls
Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Loughborough University

Standard

EPSRC

01 July 2015

31 December 2017

30 months

£217,757

Energy

East Midlands

Energy : Energy

Professor J Walls, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Loughborough University

Dr J Bowers, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Loughborough University

The market for photovoltaic (PV) modules has expanded dramatically from 6.4GW in 2009 to 37GW in 2013. PV demand ispoised for explosive growth to reach 49GW in 2014, and is forecast to reach up to 100GW by 2018. This end-marketgrowth is projected to increase annual PV module revenues, which are forecast to reach US$50 billion in 2018. Despitebeing severely hampered by overcapacity and declining operating margins during 2012 and 2013, the PV industry still grew34% over this two-year period. Thin film PV has approximately a 10% market share and has inherent cost advantages,especially in the development of utility scale installations. As part of the manufacturing process, it is necessary tointerconnect gridded areas of the PV module to form long series connected PV regions. In this project, the interconnect willbe achieved using a new laser ablation/inkjet process that works at speeds of up to 3m/sec. This will radically change theway modules are produced by reducing complexity and cost of manufacture. The sales target for this new process is>$10m per annum with attractive ongoing sales of specialist inks. The primary objective is to develop the OSI process andmaterials for semi-transparent perovskite for Building Integrated PV glazing applications, a very promising market. The secondary and tertiary objectives are to develop the process and materials for CIGS and CZTS, respectively

20/07/15