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Photovoltaic with superior crack resistance

Objective

Cracks in silicon solar cells composing photovoltaic (PV) modules are induced during production (soldering of busbars onto solar cells, other defects), transportation, installation and exposure to the environment. The economic impact of cracking in PV modules has been assessed in about 6 Euro/(kWp year) due to the cost of repair/substitution and the missing production while cracks are not yet observable with the naked eye. This has a clear huge technological and economic impact on the market that can be estimated in 180 MEuro/year of losses, by considering a conservative amount of 30 GWp of new installations in the World per year. If cracking cannot be avoided due to the brittleness of Silicon, the proposed idea to be taken to proof of concept is to limit its effect as much as possible. A new generation of PV modules displaying a superior resistance against cracking is proposed, starting from the fundamental discovery within the CA2PVM ERC StG project that residual thermo-mechanical compressive stresses in Silicon cells are beneficial to induce crack face contact and electric recovery. An innovative pre-stressing technique will be designed to increase the residual compressive stresses in Silicon and achieve the crack closure state for any crack and therefore avoid electrical power-losses. An exploitation strategy based on patenting of the technical solution, writing of a business plan, and founding a spin-off/start-up company with a team with interdisciplinary skills will be implemented. This will allow for fund raising and exploitation of the idea also based on the already established industrial contacts.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2016-PoC

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Host institution

SCUOLA IMT (ISTITUZIONI, MERCATI, TECNOLOGIE) ALTI STUDI DI LUCCA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 149 500,00
Address
PIAZZA SAN PONZIANO 6
55100 Lucca
Italy

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Region
Centro (IT) Toscana Lucca
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 149 500,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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