Boosting SUstaiNability, Reliability and EfficiencY of perovskite PV through novel materials and process engineering.

Perovskite photovoltaics have seen rapid advances in the last decade with the promise of higher efficiency, reduced embedded energy and CO2 emissions, low-temperature production for versatile applications such as flexible photovoltaics and all at potentially much lower cost than current Si technology. However, poor stability and short lifetime in the field is holding back wide deployment of perovskite photovoltaics. The current best performing materials also contain lead (Pb) which is toxic and damaging to health and the environment.

To address these limitations, SUNREY will tackle the root causes of these limiting factors through a suite of innovations covering all aspects of the device design and manufacture including improvements to the stability/performance ratio of the perovskite materials themselves, development of new charge transport and electrode materials and low-cost deposition methods that can be configured to different perovskite absorbers, development of improved stability Pb-free materials, development of a range of measures for barriers and encapsulation from layers to module and process optimisation. These technology developments will be underpinned by new approaches to degradation mechanism analysis and the incorporation of modelling to combine barrier properties data with device performance models and test data. The design process will be driven by lifecycle, circularity and sustainability analyses. Developments will be validated to TRL5 through testing by an accredited laboratory under both realistic laboratory conditions and outdoors.

SUNREY targets a breakthrough combination of high efficiency (25% Pb-based, 15% Pb-free) with long lifetime (25 years), reduced emissions and cost of manufacturing compared to Si. This will open up a wide range of new opportunities for the consortium companies including utility-scale panels, IoT and MicroPower, Independent Power Sources, Building Applied Utility Power (BAPV) Building-Integrated Photovoltaics.