Meyer Burger Strikes Strategic Partnerships For Tandem Technology

• Meyer Burger has formed a consortium of academia and research institutes for perovskite silicon tandem technology
• With CSEM, HZB and Fraunhofer ISE and Institute of Photovoltaics at the University of Stuttgart, it aims to industrialize this technology with over 30% efficiency
• The production technologies developed under the cooperation will be exclusively used by Meyer Burger to manufacture commercially

Meyer Burger Technology AG aims to achieve industrialization of perovskite silicon tandem (PST) technology with over 30% efficiency for these cells in a collaboration with Switzerland's CSEM, Germany's Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, and the Institute of Photovoltaics at the University of Stuttgart.

The European solar cell and module producer says the multi-year cooperation agreements with these entities will develop these new production technologies exclusively for the company's own manufacturing of commercial solar modules.

It claims to have already achieved a record efficiency of 29.6% for 25 sq. cm. PST cell with CSEM using combined HJT silicon and perovskite structures. Another consortium partner HZB has achieved over 31% lab efficiency for this configuration. With Meyer Burger as an industrial partner, it will apply these results for commercial manufacturing.

Fraunhofer ISE will enable upscaling of PV production processes and certification of modules under the partnership, while Stuttgart University will bring its knowledge of intensive research into the properties of new materials for new solar cell technology.

"With a long tradition of proprietary development, Meyer Burger has an extensive portfolio of processes, technologies, and production techniques at its disposal for the potential mass production of tandem solar cells and modules in-house," said Head of Research and Development at Meyer Burger, Marcel König.

Research will be based on existing collaborations for the development of heterojunction (HJT) silicon solar cells. It was already in a collaboration for PST with Oxford PV which was terminated by the latter in 2021 (see Meyer Burger Planning To Drag Oxford PV To Court).

As the global solar industry looks beyond PERC to find a cost effective, highly efficient PV technology, PST is on the radar of manufacturers like Meyer Burger as one with high potential in the future and early movers will be rewarded. Recently HZB announced a partnership with Qcells to establish a pilot line for industrial tandem cells in Germany (see Pilot Line For Tandem Solar Cells Under EU's Pepperoni Project).