SBIR Phase I: Development of printing process of effectively transparent contacts (ETCs) for III-V, thin-film and silicon solar cells.

SBIR 第一阶段：开发用于 III-V、薄膜和硅太阳能电池的有效透明触点 (ETC) 印刷工艺。

• 批准号: 1844090
• 负责人: Vivek Shah
• 金额: $ 21.82万
• 依托单位: ETC Solar, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-01 至 2020-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1844090&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Development; printing; process

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to boost the power output of solar cells by 5-6% and reduce manufacturing costs by ~5%. By commercializing the proposed effectively transparent contact (ETC) technology the levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) of solar energy systems could be dramatically reduced, resulting in accelerated adoption of solar energy to address greenhouse gas emission and to become independent of fossil fuels. Improving power output of solar cells is one of the most effective means to drive down LCOE, and the ETC technology is broadly applicable to improve the power output of nearly all types of solar cells. Lower-cost solar cells can also be expected to benefit the developing world as well as disadvantaged communities that lack access to the power grid. In the near term, the proposed ETC technology will unlock higher power output and new applications for III-V photovoltaics, which are used predominantly in aerospace, defense, high performance consumer electronics and automotive. These rapidly growing markets require higher power output solar cells to add functionality (RADAR, LIDAR and surveillance) by increasing the payload capacity that is currently limited by the available space to mount the solar cells. The proposed project will demonstrate the commercial viability of the ETC technology by demonstrating a new world record solar cell and scalable fabrication on commercial III-V solar cells. Metal contacts are required for charge extraction from solar cells, typically covering 5-6% of the front surface and blocking sunlight from reaching the photovoltaic material below. These losses due to blocking of incoming sunlight by the metal contacts are the largest single contribution to the performance loss in most solar cells. The proposed ETC technology eliminates these losses and thereby boost the solar cell power output by 5-6%. The ETC technology has been demonstrated at lab scale and is world's highest performing front contact technology. During the research project, ETCs will be integrated with commercial III-V solar cells supplied by prospective initial customers and world-leading research partners. The technical viability of ETCs will be established by achieving dramatic improvements in cell efficiency for each cell type, whereas the commercial viability will be established by successfully integrating the ETCs using techniques, materials, and tools suitable for commercial scale-up. Completion of these objectives will accelerate the efforts to commercialize the ETC technology, which will broadly increase power output and reduce cost of solar energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将太阳能电池的功率输出提高5-6％，并将制造成本降低约5％。通过商业化提议的有效透明接触（ETC）技术，可以大大降低太阳能系统的电力（LCOE）的平均电力成本（LCOE），从而加速采用太阳能以解决温室气体排放，并独立于化石燃料。改善太阳能电池的功率输出是驱动LCOE的最有效手段之一，ETC技术广泛适用于改善几乎所有类型的太阳能电池的功率输出。还可以预期，低成本的太阳能电池将使发展中国家以及缺乏获得电网的弱势社区受益。在短期内，拟议的ETC技术将解锁更高的功率输出和III-V光伏的新应用，这些应用主要用于航空航天，国防，高性能消费电子和汽车。这些快速增长的市场需要更高的功率输出太阳能电池来增加功能（雷达，激光雷达和监视），这是通过增加有效载荷能力，而有效载荷能力被目前受到安装太阳能电池的可用空间的限制。拟议的项目将通过展示新的世界记录太阳能电池和商业III-V太阳能电池的可扩展制造来证明ETC技术的商业生存能力。从太阳能电池中提取电荷需要金属接触，通常覆盖前表面的5-6％，并阻止阳光到达下面的光伏材料。这些由于金属接触阻断传入的阳光而造成的损失是大多数太阳能电池对性能损失的最大贡献。提出的ETC技术消除了这些损失，从而将太阳能电池的功率输出提高了5-6％。 ETC技术已在实验室规模上证明，并且是世界上表现最高的前触点技术。在研究项目中，ETC将与潜在的初始客户和世界领先的研究伙伴提供的商业III-V太阳能电池集成。 ETC的技术可行性将通过实现每种细胞类型的细胞效率的显着提高来确定，而商业生存能力将通过使用适合商业规模扩大的技术，材料和工具成功整合ETC来确定。这些目标的完成将加快商业化ETC技术的努力，这将大大增加功率输出并降低太阳能的成本。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来通过评估来支持的。审查标准。