Flexible and semitransparent solar cells

Solar power is the fastest growing source of renewable energy worldwide. Developing low cost, high efficiency and clean solar energy technologies will be of significant long-term interests. All around the world, silicon solar cells dominate the rooftop solar energy production market due to their high efficiency and stability. However, silicon modules have limited use cases as they are bulky, opaque and difficult to apply to complex surfaces. Perovskite solar cells have gained widespread interest in recent years as they are solution processed at low temperatures and can therefore be deposited on flexible and lightweight substrates. Additionally, oerovskite has achieved high efficiencies and is a highly tunable material, where the chemical and crystal properties can be altered to tune the transparency. Semitransparent, lightweight, and flexible solar cells can be applied in several novel applications including electric vehicle autobodies; building windows and facades; powering electronic devices (loT); or attached on top of existing silicon based solar cells to boost the overall solar cell efficiency. The objective of the partner organization is to commercialize perovskite solar cell technology for above mentioned applications and the proposed project will help advance their goal by developing flexible and semi-transparent solar cells.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ian Hill

Student:

Irina Valitova

Partner:

Rayleigh Solar Tech Inc.

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

University:

Dalhousie University

Program: