Process Development for Nanostructured Photovoltaics
Abstract
Photovoltaic manufacturing is an emerging industry that promises a carbon-free, nearly limitless source of energy for our nation. However, the high-temperature manufacturing processes used for conventional silicon-based photovoltaics are extremely energy-intensive and expensive. This high cost imposes a critical barrier to the widespread implementation of photovoltaic technology. Argonne National Laboratory and its partners recently invented new methods for manufacturing nanostructured photovoltaic devices that allow dramatic savings in materials, process energy, and cost. These methods are based on atomic layer deposition, a thin film synthesis technique that has been commercialized for the mass production of semiconductor microelectronics. The goal of this project was to develop these low-cost fabrication methods for the high efficiency production of nanostructured photovoltaics, and to demonstrate these methods in solar cell manufacturing. We achieved this goal in two ways: 1) we demonstrated the benefits of these coatings in the laboratory by scaling-up the fabrication of low-cost dye sensitized solar cells; 2) we used our coating technology to reduce the manufacturing cost of solar cells under development by our industrial partners.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) - Office of Industrial Technologies
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1169536
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ESD/TM-15/4
112283
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Program Document
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY
Citation Formats
Elam, Jeffrey W. Process Development for Nanostructured Photovoltaics. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web.
Elam, Jeffrey W. Process Development for Nanostructured Photovoltaics. United States.
Elam, Jeffrey W. 2015.
"Process Development for Nanostructured Photovoltaics". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1169536.
@article{osti_1169536,
title = {Process Development for Nanostructured Photovoltaics},
author = {Elam, Jeffrey W.},
abstractNote = {Photovoltaic manufacturing is an emerging industry that promises a carbon-free, nearly limitless source of energy for our nation. However, the high-temperature manufacturing processes used for conventional silicon-based photovoltaics are extremely energy-intensive and expensive. This high cost imposes a critical barrier to the widespread implementation of photovoltaic technology. Argonne National Laboratory and its partners recently invented new methods for manufacturing nanostructured photovoltaic devices that allow dramatic savings in materials, process energy, and cost. These methods are based on atomic layer deposition, a thin film synthesis technique that has been commercialized for the mass production of semiconductor microelectronics. The goal of this project was to develop these low-cost fabrication methods for the high efficiency production of nanostructured photovoltaics, and to demonstrate these methods in solar cell manufacturing. We achieved this goal in two ways: 1) we demonstrated the benefits of these coatings in the laboratory by scaling-up the fabrication of low-cost dye sensitized solar cells; 2) we used our coating technology to reduce the manufacturing cost of solar cells under development by our industrial partners.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1169536},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}