Project description
Shining a light on ultrathin solar cells
Solar power is growing, but today’s thick silicon-based solar cells require significant amounts of material and have limited efficiency. To enable the massive scaling of photovoltaic energy, a new generation of solar cells with lower material demands and higher conversion efficiencies is essential. The ERC-funded UltiMatePV project aims to reduce the thickness of solar cell active layers without compromising light absorption. Using advanced light-trapping techniques, the project will develop ultrathin devices that absorb light much more efficiently while using a fraction of the material. UltiMatePV explores silicon, III-V semiconductors and perovskites, with a focus on innovative architectures, including hot-carrier and multi-junction solar cells. The goal is to achieve solar cell efficiencies of around 40 %, transforming the potential of solar power.
Objective
The transition towards a society powered by 100% renewable energy necessitates the widespread de-ployment of photovoltaics. This poses a challenge due to the limited availability of resources and space. To address this, breakthrough technologies that consume fewer resources and achieve higher conversion efficiencies than the dominant silicon technology are required. The overarching goal of UltiMatePV is to re-invent the modern solar cell and open the gate to a new generation of resource-saving photovoltaic technology with highest conversion efficiencies. Enabling light-trapping beyond the Lambertian limit, based on schemes such as multi-resonant photonics, will allow for the realiza-tion of higher efficiency solar cells with typically 10x less use of semiconductor materials and thus reduce the required resources tremendously. This strongly reduced device thickness will also lead to confinement of the photo-generated charge carriers. The resulting increase of the carrier concentration will open the door for the realization of the worldwide first efficient hot-carrier cell, in which most of the carriers can be extracted before they thermalize. A new generation of devices based on the three currently relevant types of semiconductor absorbers (Si, III-V, perovskite) will be researched, account-ing for, e.g. the new requirements in terms of compatibility with resonant optical structures and ultra-low interface defect density. The unique complementary consortium of experimental, theoretical and modelling teams will overcome the Shockley Queisser limit for single junction solar cells with both ultrathin multi-junction and hot-carrier solar cells, enabling the first experimental proof of effects pre-dicted theoretically. We aim for a solar cell with an efficiency of 40%, requiring 10 times less semi-conductor material than classical devices, while paving the way to a broader range of other optoelec-tronic devices.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics semiconductivity
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry metalloids
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-SyG
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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.
79098 Freiburg
Germany
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.