PEARL, FHNW School of Life Sciences

Several advantages arise from the incorporation of carbon electrodes in the perovskite solar cell (PSC) architecture, such as reduced material cost, improved device stability, a simplified device fabrication process, and lower emissions.

The primary objective of PEARL is to develop flexible perovskite solar cells using industrially viable, scalable and environmentally sound methods. These cells should have long-term operational stability that surpasses IEC standards, provide more than 25% gain in efficiency, at a production costs below 0.3 EUR/Wp, with minimal emissions < 0.01 kg CO2eq/kWh.

PEARL is focusing on the development of planar, conventional n-i-p, and further n-i-c, device architectures utilizing low-temperature carbon pastes as the top electrodes, aimed at emerging markets including integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), vehicle integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) and internet of things (IoT).

The FHNW School of Life Sciences will calculate emissions and cost baseline through life cycle analysis (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) for flexible photovoltaics, identifying key components for cost savings and environmental impacts abatement. Further, we will ensure the safe deployment of these perovskites through outdoor leaching tests and develop recycling schemes for the safe management of wastes at the end-of-life.

EU project website