Reduced Environmental Controls in Perovskite Solar Cell Manufacturing Enabled by Vacuum-Deposited Gas Barrier Coatings

With their relative ease of fabrication, potential for roll-to-roll processing and extremely high photovoltaic efficiencies, perovskite solar cells could be a disruptive solar energy technology that would put the world on track to meet its targets for clean energy production. Perovskite solar cells, however, are highly susceptible to degradation by exposure to ambient humidity or high temperatures, which poses a major challenge to their effective manufacturing. In order to produce reliable and high-performing solar cells, manufacturers will need to invest in expensive environmental controls (i.e. dry room equipment) to limit the degradation during electrical connection formation, testing and lamination. The CAPEX investment associated with this requirement poses a major economic roadblock to the adoption of this technology to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change. GVD proposes to use its vacuum-deposited, multilayer, gas barrier coatings to circumvent the need for dry facilities for module assembly and also improve the long-term stability and prevent heavy metal leaching in perovskite solar cells. The gas barrier coatings will exclude water vapor from the perovskite, allowing most of the module assembly to be carried out ambient conditions without loss of photovoltaic efficiency. GVD determined in Phase I that its technology will cost 89% less than dry room equipment – an amount equal to $233 million/(GW/year manufacturing capacity) - and could save solar cell manufacturers a total of $35 billion in CAPEX over the next 10 years. Reducing the capital equipment required for a perovskite solar cell plant will have a direct and significant impact on the minimum sustainable price and enable the necessary rate of deployment of solar cells to mitigate climate change. In Phase I, GVD demonstrated the protective qualities of its coating on perovskite solar cells and optimized its coating process to have the required throughput and barrier properties for this application. GVD coatings lowered rates of humidity-induced photoconversion efficiency degradation by 75%. In the proposed Phase II work, GVD will further improve its process and design a full-scale coating tool to be ready to move to commercialization. GVD has partnered with Tandem PV (a tandem perovskite solar cell manufacturer) and Prof. Tara P. Dhakal (the director of the Center for Autonomous Solar Power at SUNY Binghamton). In Phase II, GVD will also test its coating on solar cells from another manufacturer that has expressed its support for the project. At the end of Phase II, GVD will have significantly improved its coating performance and have designed a full-scale coating tool that it can integrate into perovskite solar manufacturing lines.