DoE

A new consortium of academic and industry partners, Tandems for Efficient and Advanced Modules using Ultrastable Perovskites, or TEAMUP, looks to help mitigate climate change by making a new generation of solar technology commercially viable.

The three-year TEAMUP collaboration, which is planned to start in the fall of 2023, is supported by $9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. TEAMUP seeks to maximize the performance and reliability of tandem solar panels for consumer use.

The US Department of Energy supports perovskite R&D initiatives, both in academia and industry. We have recently interviewed Lenny Tinker, Photovoltaics Program Manager, Solar Energy Technologies Office at the US DoE.

Q: Hello Lenny, thanks for your time. Do you believe perovskite materials hold the key to next-gen solar (PV) energy?

Perovskite solar cells have shown potential for high performance and low production costs. However, considerable work needs to be done in order for these materials to reach commercial success in PV applications.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has announced USD$52 million (EUR 47.5 million) in funding for 19 research, development and demonstration projects that seek to strengthen domestic solar manufacturing, support the recycling of solar panels and develop new solar technologies.

This funding will back several projects, among which two projects, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Colorado Boulder, will receive a total of USD$18 million through the PV Research and Development funding programme to advance perovskite solar cell devices.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced up to $47 million in funding (DE-FOA-0002920) to accelerate the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of affordable clean hydrogen technologies. 

This funding opportunity focuses on RD&D of key hydrogen delivery and storage technologies as well as affordable and durable fuel cell technologies. The RD&D projects will focus particularly on applications for heavy-duty trucks, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and eliminate tailpipe emissions that are harmful to local air quality. Among the specific topics to be funded in this interest area is perovskite-based catalysts, under the headline of "Hydrogen Carrier Development".

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has announced new initiatives and $56 million in funding to promote innovation in solar manufacturing and recycling. The funding will aim to help make clean energy more affordable and reliable, create jobs and enhance U.S. economic growth and competitiveness. Developing more solar power, the cheapest form of new electricity supply, is key to achieving President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.

The new programs that were announced are designed to drive innovation in solar technology and manufacturing, supporting opportunities for the U.S. to expand production of thin-film modules, which do not rely on foreign-dominated supply chains, as well as supporting newer technologies like perovskite solar cells.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) awarded nearly $40 Million for grid-decarbonizing solar technologies projects. The DoE awarded the funds to 40 research projects, several of which are perovskite related. We'll list the perovskite projects (which were awarded a total of $1.25 million) below.

The DoE also issued a request for information (RFI) to gather input on efficiency, stability and replicability performance targets for perovskite photovoltaic devices that could be utilized to demonstrate technical and commercial readiness for future funding programs.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DoE) Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Taiwan's Academia Sinica have reported the preparation of stable perovskite nanocrystals for LEDs.

Light-emitting diodes made from perovskite nanocrystals (green) embedded in a metal-organic framework. Image from Phys.org

Perovskite nanocrystals' unstable nature has so far hindered their potential to be used as LED materials. However, the research team managed to stabilize the nanocrystals in a porous structure called a metal-organic framework, or MOF for short. Based on earth-abundant materials and fabricated at room temperature, these LEDs could one day enable lower cost TVs and consumer electronics, as well as better gamma-ray imaging devices and even self-powered X-ray detectors with applications in medicine, security scanning and scientific research.

University of Texas at Dallas researchers, led by Dr. Julia Hsu, have shown that a technique called photonic curing can be used to manufacture perovskite solar cells faster than other current methods.

Hsu's research aims to solve a problem that has impeded large-scale manufacturing of flexible electronics and solar panels: the need to reduce the amount of time for the slowest part of production, called annealing. In this stage, the thin film must be heated to high temperatures, a step that can sometimes take hours and make production costly.

The Department of Energy recently awarded $14 million to form a center, led by Sandia National Laboratories, to improve the understanding of perovskite-based photovoltaic technologies and determine the best tests to evaluate the new solar panels' lifetimes.

Perovskite-based photovoltaic technologies still have several challenges to overcome before they can compete against conventional solar panels. The Perovskite Photovoltaic Accelerator for Commercializing Technologies Center aims to offer solutions to these challenges.

Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT) recently revealed that it has been selected for an award of $2.5 million in financing from the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite Funding Program.

In addition, HPT is also co-Principle Investigator and collaborative partner in two other DOE perovskite funding award selections, including a $1.5 million award to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and a $1.25 million award to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).