The ACT-FAST project brings together change makers from four EU leading PV researcher institutions to establish an impactful, innovative, all thin film PV tandem technology driving the clean energy transition.
The Sustainable Antimony Chalcogenide Thin-Film TAndem Solar Technology (ACT-FAST) project, receiving funding from the European Commission, in the frame of the Clean Energy Transition Partnership, (CETPartnership) is targeting to provide scalable and impactful thin film tandem photovoltaic (PV) solutions with the highest potential of rapid transferability and mass adoption by the society.
The power of PV
Increasing the proportion of power generated by PV will reduce world carbon emissions and provide a green future for society.
ACT-FAST project capitalises on European wide thin-film (TF) PV expertise to deliver a new type of solar technology capable of producing high power densities, with a wider application range than traditional Si based modules.
We target a technology with excellent long-term stability, allowing PVs to be deployed in a wider range of settings e.g., flexible, or low weight modules more suitable for building integrated PV (BIPV), mobility and customised product integration applications (PIPV/IPV).
ACT-FAST aims to develop high efficiency TF tandem solar cells, based on emerging earth abundant antimony chalcogenides, using novel and low-cost techniques, low environmental impact materials, high versatility, and scalable depositions processes. This will yield a technology compatible with a future upscaling for mass deployment and transferable solutions which are adopted by society.
Achieving climate-neutral Europe
In the fight against climate change, the European Union (EU) is committed to transitioning towards a sustainable, secure, and competitive energy system to achieve the goal of a climate-neutral Europe with net-zero emissions by 2050 outlined in the European Green Deal.1 2
Photovoltaic (PV) energy represents a key technology to enable the decarbonisation of the energy system, as the most cost-effective solution. The key drivers towards widescale adoption of PV technologies are the continued reduction of cost per watt from module production and identifying alternative applications (e.g. building integrated or semi-transparent PV) to maximise usage of the technology and accelerate their adoption by the society.
While substantial efforts in various PV technologies (such as silicon or thin film CdTe) have been devoted to increase cell PCE through optimisation in material quality and optics, the most direct route to enhance performance beyond the limit of single junction PV devices is tandem technology.
Thin film PV technologies are adaptable
Thin film PV technologies are ideally suited to meet this challenge as producing lower cost per Watt due to rapid production techniques, but also have a high degree of adaptability in available design and applications.
ACT-FAST proposes an alternative approach to extend the concept of highly efficient tandem devices to novel thin-film PV technologies and to develop novel all TF tandem solar cells (SC) (Fig. 1) entirely based on emerging low temperature process antimony chalcogenides.
Long-term vision of the ACT-FAST project
The long-term vision of the project is to deliver a new generation of TF tandem solar cells (SC) and modules reaching high levels of performance with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) ≥25%, at low manufacturing costs of ≤€0.10/Wp.
To reach the ambitious target, ACT-FAST brings together top research groups from Tallinn University of Technology (TALT), University of Liverpool (ULIV), Universitat Polytechnical de Catalunya (UPC), Institut de Recerca de l’Energia de Catalunya (IREC, and Università degli Studi di Verona (UNIVR), with the highest EU share of cumulative efforts on the development of emerging thin film PV technologies.
This project takes the view that the long-term delivery of the technology needs to be considered during its development, not as an afterthought. ACT-FAST will contributing towards:
• Building a sustainable and ultracompetitive mass production process for thin film tandem PV (i.e., based on a market-oriented roadmap);
• Boosting the European PV industry by providing a framework to convert EU-based expertise into products, services and innovations;
• Reducing the carbon footprint of tandem PV technologies;
• The positioning of Europe as a leader in the industrial production of TF PV along the entire European PV value chain; and
• Producing highly qualified human resources via research excellence and career development of researchers (following the gender balance principles) for leading roles in the reindustrialisation of Europe as a low-carbon economy.
“This research was funded by CETPartnership, the Clean Energy Transition Partnership under the 2022 CETPartnership joint call for research proposals, co-funded by the European Commission (GAN°101069750), with the funding detailed on https://cetpartnership.eu/funding-agencies-and-call-modules and with the funding organisation Estonian Research Council, agreement No MOB3PRT2’’
References
- Stepping up Europe’s 2030 Climate Ambition Investing in a Climate-Neutral Future for the Benefit of Our People, COM/2020/562 Final.
- Fit for 55 packages. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/green-deal/fit-for-55-the-eu-plan-for-a green-transition/
Please note, this article will also appear in the seventeenth edition of our quarterly publication.
