Solliance

Solliance is the joint solar research centre of imec, Hasselt University, Eindhoven University of Technology and TNO, with more than 200 researchers working on thin-film and tandem solar cells. Its focus is perovskite, a class of materials that can be processed at low cost into thin films with a high efficiency.

Solliance has set records along the way. In 2017 it reached 12.6 percent stabilised efficiency for perovskite solar cells produced roll-to-roll, a world record for that production method. In 2022 its tandem cell, a perovskite layer on top of a silicon cell, reached 30.1 percent.

In NEON, Solliance worked with TU/e professors Adriana Creatore and Erwin Kessels on building-integrated solar power. The goal was semi-transparent perovskite cells for windows and facades: efficient enough to matter and clear enough that the light entering a room still looks natural. Creatore and Kessels are specialists in atomic layer deposition, a technique that builds a material one atomic layer at a time. Early results showed that a single such layer in the stack of a perovskite cell could improve both its efficiency and its stability, which could open the way to low-cost production.

NEON's conclusion supports that bet: the perovskite cells NEON studied will probably break through.