- UNSW research into achieving 30% efficiency for silicon-CIGS tandem cell is to be conducted on Midsummer’s UNO machine
- Research work is partly funded by the Australian government and has LONGi, Trina Solar and JinkoSolar as participants
- The team is working to achieve high efficiency tandem solar cells that can be rapidly scaled up
Swedish thin-film solar PV company Midsummer says its research project with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to develop a silicon-CIGS tandem solar cell with 30% efficiency has secured funding which also has participation of leading Chinese solar panel makers LONGi, Trina Solar and JinkoSolar.
Midsummer says research on the project worth SEK 84 million will be conducted on its UNO machine that the Swedish company installed on location in May 2022.
Focus on the research is to use mass-produced silicon panels that have efficiencies reaching around 20% along with thin film copper, indium, gallium, selenium and/or sulphur (CIGS) panels to achieve a much higher theoretical efficiency in a tandem configuration.
Leading the project is UNSW’s Professor Xiaojing Hao who said, “By working closely with our project partners as well as world-leading researchers and manufacturers of these materials, this project will provide next-generation, high-performance, sustainable and cost-effective tandem cells that can be rapidly scaled up.”
The research project is funded by the Australian government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to help achieve module efficiency of 30%, and reduce total construction costs of utility scale solar farms to $0.30/W by 2030, dubbed Solar 30 30 30 target (see ARENA’s $45 Million For $0.30/W Solar Cost).
Midsummer that commercially produces bendable CIGS solar cells through its DUO system, is also part of the University of California’s (UCLA) perovskite-CIGS tandem cell research. It claims the university has been able to achieve 24.9% tandem cell efficiency for an R&D project using its technology (see 24.9% Perovskite-CIGS Tandem Solar Cell Efficiency).
