Midsummer, a Sweden-based thin-film solar solutions company, has been chosen to participate in a research project aimed at developing a highly efficient and stable Si/CIGS tandem solar cell that can achieve over 30% efficiency. The project, led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), has secured funding of AUD 3.08 million (USD 2.07 million) from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), with a total project budget of AUD 11.55 million (USD 7.78 million).
The project brings together some of the world's leading solar panel manufacturers and researchers in chalcogenide and Si PV. Xiaojing Hao, a professor at the UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, expressed gratitude for ARENA's strong support and highlighted the potential for the project to produce next-generation, high-performance, durable, and cost-effective tandem cells that can be rapidly scaled up.
Midsummer's CEO, Sven Lindström, believes that combining silicon and thin film technologies to create tandem cells has the best conditions for rapid commercialization. He said, “Silicon and thin film are two mature, stable, and proven technologies in the current solar space. By combining them, we can take advantage of their respective strengths and create a highly efficient and stable tandem solar cell.”
The project will use Midsummer's generic R&D machine UNO as the platform, enabling automated research and long series of tests without supervision. The same equipment and substrate size will be used in research work as in production, allowing for easy transfers for process improvements and cost-saving measures.
Midsummer's R&D machine has already proven to facilitate thin-film and tandem cell research. Last month, researchers at Prof. Yang Yang's Laboratory at the University of California used Midsummer's machine to develop a four-terminal perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cell, achieving an efficiency of 24.9%.
As the project moves forward, Midsummer and its partners aim to create a highly efficient and stable Si/CIGS tandem solar cell that can significantly reduce the cost of solar energy and accelerate the adoption of renewable energy around the world.
