BEST4U
Title: Bifacial, high efficiency 4-terminals solar cell technology for “utility scale”.
ICCOM Principal Investigator: Alessandro Mordini.
Project type: National – PON ricerca e innovazione 2014-2020.
Duration: 01/04/2020-01/04/2023.
Abstract: The “Best4U” project focuses on industrial research aimed at finding solutions to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic modules by more than 25% and improve bi-faciality, because this reduces significantly both the associated BOS and LCOE. To obtain this improvement in efficiency and productivity, the concept of a 4-terminal photovoltaic module is proposed. 4T cells and modules can be considered as an alternative to tandem photovoltaic cells with some important advantages. The conventional monolithic tandem cell connected in series in fact is limited by the necessity of matching the lattice parameter and current of the 2 cells in series. On the contrary, the 4-terminal structure is not affected by these aspects and this adds considerable degrees of freedom. The present proposal therefore has as its objective the realization of a 4-terminal cell / module in which the lower cell is a double-sided heterojunction Si cell, and the upper cell is a wide band-gap semiconductor cell. the double-sided lower part collects and transforms the incident red and infrared light passing through the top cell into electricity, and the albedo light reflected / diffused from the ground from the rear. The first cell collects and transforms the blue portion of the incident solar spectrum. The goal is an efficiency in standard conditions greater than 25%. For this purpose, some approaches will be studied in parallel and compared, and the most promising will be defined. A double-sided photovoltaic field demonstrator optimized for the exploitation of the albedo of the soil with a productivity in kWh / kWp greater than 20% compared to the single-sided system will also be created.
Partnership: 3SUN S.r.l. (COORDINATOR), Italian National Research Council (CNR), University of PERUGIA, University of PADUA, University of CATANIA, APPLIED MATERIALS ITALIA SRL, Sicily Technology District, Micro e Nano Sistemi S.c.a.r.l., University of MILANO-BICOCCA, University of TURIN.
ICCOM participants: Lorenzo Zani, Alessio Dessì, Gianna Reginato, Massimo Calamante.
Sponsored by: MIUR through Projects PON ricerca e innovazione 2014-2020.
Financial contribution (overall): 3.005.034 €
Financial contribution (ICCOM): 60.000 €