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.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/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%。通过将拟议的有效透明接触（ETC）技术商业化，太阳能系统的平准化电力成本（LCOE）可以大大降低，从而加速采用太阳能来解决温室气体排放并摆脱化石燃料。提高太阳能电池的发电量是降低度电成本​​最有效的手段之一，而ETC技术广泛适用于提高几乎所有类型太阳能电池的发电量。低成本太阳能电池也有望使发展中国家以及无法接入电网的弱势社区受益。在短期内，拟议的 ETC 技术将为 III-V 光伏发电带来更高的功率输出和新应用，这些光伏发电主要用于航空航天、国防、高性能消费电子产品和汽车。这些快速增长的市场需要更高功率输出的太阳能电池，通过增加有效载荷容量来增加功能（雷达、激光雷达和监控），而有效载荷容量目前受到安装太阳能电池的可用空间的限制。拟议项目将通过展示新的世界纪录太阳能电池和商用 III-V 太阳能电池的可扩展制造来证明 ETC 技术的商业可行性。从太阳能电池中提取电荷需要金属触点，通常覆盖前表面的 5-6%，并阻挡阳光到达下面的光伏材料。由于金属触点阻挡入射阳光而造成的这些损失是大多数太阳能电池性能损失的最大单一因素。拟议的 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得到验证，是世界上性能最高的前接触技术。在研究项目期间，ETC 将与潜在初始客户和世界领先研究合作伙伴提供的商用 III-V 太阳能电池集成。 ETC 的技术可行性将通过大幅提高每种细胞类型的电池效率来建立，而商业可行性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 来建立。这些目标的完成将加速 ETC 技术商业化的努力，从而广泛提高发电量并降低太阳能成本。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过利用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。