Solliance, a partnership of R&D organizations from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany working on thin film photovoltaic solar energy, recently demonstrated an industrially-applicable roll-to-roll process for the production of solar cells achieving a record 12.6% conversion efficiency on cell level. This result allows for an accelerated market introduction of this attractive new source of renewable energy.
The roll-to-roll (R2R) process was developed for both the electron transport and the perovskite layers on the new Solliance dual R2R coating line. The in-line roll-to-roll coating, drying, and annealing processes were executed at a linear speed of 5m/min on a 30-cm wide commercial PET/ITO foil and under ambient conditions. All process steps on this roll-to-roll line were performed using low-cost materials while keeping the process temperatures below 120 â°C, which is indicative of the production potential of this new emerging thin film PV technology.
'The demonstration of R2R processing at 5 m/min of perovskite layers for solar cells indicates that high-volume production, and hence with an expected very low cost, will be possible in the future', explains Professor of SMART materials at the Technical University of Delft and Program Manager at Holst Centre/Solliance.
