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.
MIT's project will bring together industry and academic partners to design, build, and test commercially relevant tandem solar cells, which combine both silicon and perovskite PV materials. The project team will research efficient module designs, create commercially relevant manufacturing methods, and perform
durability testing. (Award Amount: $9 million).
University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder, CO)'s project team will design and build tandem silicon-perovskite solar cells, comparing different manufacturing methods for the perovskite layer to minimize cost and maximize efficiency and durability. The center will consist of four universities, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and three American perovskite
companies. (Award Amount: $9 million)
Additional funding will be routed to Electroninks Incorporated (Austin, TX): This project will explore the use of new metal “inks” for adding conductive metal contacts to solar cells, providing a cheaper method that is compatible with multiple common solar cell technologies, including silicon, CdTe, and perovskites. (Award Amount: $750,000)
