Better solar technology and expertise
Thin-film PV offers many advantages over other technologies, including low consumption of raw materials, better performance at elevated temperatures and reduced sensitivity to overheating. It is expected to soon surpass leading conventional solar PV technologies. Interdisciplinary research training is needed to help address the current lack of expertise and guarantee the future strategic development of PV technologies in Europe. The EU-funded KESTCELLS (Training for sustainable low cost PV technologies: Development of kesterite based efficient solar cells) initiative was launched to train 12 doctoral students and 2 postdocs in advanced thin-film PV technologies. The researchers trained the students by designing specific career development plans, secondments, seminars, thematic workshops and meetings. Researchers developed PV technologies based on kesterites, minerals made from non-toxic and low-cost raw materials. During the project, researchers acquired a much deeper understanding of the basic properties of kesterites. KESTCELLS gained new knowledge that includes order-disorder outcomes, cationic distribution, and how to develop a phonon confinement model to assess the quality of layers. The team designed new processes such as physical vapour deposition methods and chemical routes to synthesise high quality kesterites. The researchers also developed light scattering-based methods to achieve process control and monitoring. Researchers identified kesterites as one of the most promising materials for future thin-film PV applications as they are abundant and of low toxicity. Kesterites are now considered an alternative to conventional copper-indium-gallium-selenide technology, which faces problems of indium and gallium scarcity and have been identified as the main PV technology option fully free of crystal raw materials. KESTCELLS trained 14 researchers through seminars, 5 specialised workshops and other activities. The training focused on, among other skills, management, writing, reporting and entrepreneurship. Researchers delivered 147 presentations at international conferences and 81 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. KESTCELLS has largely contributed to understanding of basic and applied characteristics of PV materials. KESTCELLS outcomes are helping to boost the know-how and competencies of researchers in thin-film PV technology, thus ensuring a competitive PV sector in Europe.
Keywords
Kesterites, solar technology, thin-film PV, KESTCELLS, copper-indium-gallium-selenide
