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ENERGY HARVESTING IN CITIES WITH TRANSPARENT AND HIGHLY EFFICIENT WINDOW-INTEGRATED MULTI-JUNCTION SOLAR CELLS

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Taking solar windows to a whole new level

Transparent solar cells in windows are already possible. But up to now, they have not been sufficiently effective in converting sunlight into electricity. The EU-funded CITYSOLAR project aims to change this by combining two photovoltaic technologies in a tandem configuration. Specifically, CITYSOLAR will develop multi-junction solar cells that are optimised to absorb different wavelengths of sunlight by bringing together new perovskite solar cells that have a high energy gap with organic solar cells that are free of fullerenes and have a low energy gap. This will pave the way for highly transparent solar cells that absorb infrared and ultraviolet light but not visible light, leading to a conversion efficiency of over 15 %.

Objective

Transparent photovoltaics (TPV) possesses a huge untapped potential in the harvesting of solar energy where it readily can be embedded in buildings applications worldwide to significant reduce CO2 emissions, and support the needed development of nearly zero-energy buildings. TPV will increase the utilization of renewable energy directly where it is needed, and play a crucial role for the sustainable transformation of the energy sector in large cities. Using conventional photovoltaics, however, it is not possible to fabricate TPV elements without severe losses in efficiency and/or visual light transmittance. In the CITYSOLAR project, a new breakthrough concept for TPV will be developed by exploiting the combined use of emerging technologies, namely multi-junction solar modules developed from near-ultraviolet perovskite and near-infrared organic solar cells. Using advanced concepts within light management such as photonic crystals, nanophotonics and photon recycling and advanced module integration schemes, CITYSOLAR will radically change performance limits for TPV by significantly reducing losses related to light absorption and scale-up from individual solar cells to multi-junction modules. CITYSOLAR brings together world-leading European academic and industrial players, some with key intellectual property, together with two non-EU partners belonging to Mission Innovation countries specialized in the synthesis of advanced materials for hybrid and organic solar cells. The consortium will develop highly efficient and transparent solar cells and modules to increase the performance of available TPV technologies by 50%, and via innovative integration schemes present a route for its use in building integrated PV (BIPV) applications. This represents a strategic sector for Europe and an opportunity to accelerate and reduce the cost of the next generation of sustainable renewable energy technologies.

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Call for proposal

H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020

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Sub call

H2020-LC-SC3-2020-RES-RIA

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE
Net EU contribution
€ 684 802,50
Address
Piazzale aldo moro 7
00185 Roma
Italy

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Region
Centro (IT) Lazio Roma
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Other funding
€ 0,00

Participants (9)

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Last update: 29 April 2023

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101007084

European Union, 2023