Electra-Clad Final Report

Abstract:

<p>The Electra-Clad project sought to utilise existing steel based building cladding materials as a substrate for direct fabrication of a fully integrated solar PV panel of equivalent design to the ICP standard glass based panel. This would represent a major step forward in BiPV panel manufacture if achieved and open up the substantial BiPV cladding market for later exploitation of the technology. It was planned that this would be achieved by the further development and productionisation of the Electra Clad technology, working in partnership with cladding manufacturers to develop a facility capable of producing at least 20MWp p.a. The time scales to achieve this were expected to be less than 5 years and no more than 10 years.</p> <p>The nominal 3 year programme was progressed from January 2002 to August 2005, though with a 1 year suspensions due to the liquidation in December 2002 of the Lead Contractor, Intersolar / British Photovoltaics Limited (BPL). The work has progressed under 5 interrelated Activities as follows: <bl> <li>Inverted Cell Deposition Development to develop the required inverted cell process on the a-Si deposition system based at Plasma Quest Limited (PQL)</li> <li>Laser Patterning / Cell Isolation Development to develop laser patterning schemes that were able to meet the demands of the inverted structure</li> <li>Contact and 'Barrier' Layer Materials Development to identify and deposit materials for the substrate barrier layer and cell electrical contacts that were fully compatible with the inverted a-Si process</li> <li>Integration Studies to develop a monolithically integrated solar PV panel</li> <li>Bussbar and Encapsulation Studies to develop the basis for the techniques that would be required to ensure that integration into new and existing buildings cold be readily achieved</li> </bl></p> <p>The project was successful in achieving most of the Activity objectives.</p> This report is divided into the following sections: <ol> <li>Introduction</li> <li>Technical Background</li> <li>Experimental Work</li> <li>Results</li> <li>Discussion</li> <li>Lessons Learned</li> <li>Conclusions</li> <li>Recommendations</li> <li>Acknowledgements</li> <li>Figures</li> <li>Appendix</li> <li>Annex</li> </ol>

Author(s):

Lane, M.