SOLNOWAT

Development of a competitive 0 GWP dry process to reduce the dramatic water consumption in the ever-expanding solar cells manufacturing industry

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The proposed project (SOLNOWAT) aims to develop a dry route alternative for the solar cell industry that will eliminate the very high water consumption and GWP emissions of current process while meeting all production requirements. This project will clearly outline the environmental impact, cost and efficiency of the new process and equipment required, and include dissemination to cell manufacturers.

BENEFITS - Dramatic reduction of water usage* - Very low-environmental-impact processing * - Advance process control, real time monitoring* - High-throughput, high-yield, integrated industrial processing (inline)* - Devices with increased efficiency* - Enabling thin wafer processing* and surface decoupling (single sided). - Smaller footprint - Low cost of ownership* - Reviewed by a panel of cell manufacturers

Most of these benefits(*) are fundamental criteria outlined by the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform in its Strategic Research Agenda for Photovoltaic Solar Energy Technology, in order to meet the sector’s ambitions for technology implementation and industry competitiveness.

The SMEs involved believe that by cooperating together through this R&D program, they will be able to achieve significant results. The consortium is composed of 5 SMEs and 3 RTD performers located in 5 different EU countries. The R&D work will propose and develop a novel process replacing wet chemical steps by 0 GWP dry process steps. The successful development will lead to a cleaner, highly controllable, and potentially cheaper process that will deliver more efficient solar cell products with far less environmental impact. The process will meet the current high throughput demand from the industry and show its potential to meet the PV market growth demand.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

European scientists have developed a new manufacturing process for photovoltaic (PV) technology, which improves their efficiency and dramatically reduces water usage by the solar cell industry.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

PVs are solar cells that have the potential to meet the world's growing electricity needs, if they can compete with the cost of current energy generation. This could be achieved by reducing the cost of these solar cells, increasing their efficiency and reducing their environmental impact.

The EU-funded http://www.nines-pv.com/solnowat (SOLNOWAT) project developed a new 'dry' process to reduce the very high level of water consumption by PV manufacturing plants. This will help reduce global warming potential (GWP) emissions, while increasing PV cell efficiency and production levels.

Silicon etching is a key technology in the production of PV cells. The dry etching process gives a highly uniform silicon wafer with a surface texture that has low reflectivity and is extremely efficient at absorbing light. The amount of silicon removed to achieve these textures is minimal but resulted in significant cost savings. Project partners created a range of textures and non-contact handling processes that demonstrated the technology's versatility.

SOLNOWAT clearly demonstrates the benefits associated with the new PV manufacturing process and disseminated the results to cell manufacturers. All participating small- and medium-sized enterprises increased their level of European collaboration and added significant value through the development of new manufacturing equipment for PVs.

New environment-friendly production technologies that comply with European emissions regulations are vital for the continuation of PV manufacturing in the EU. By removing the industry's reliance on high levels of labour, water and GWP chemicals, SOLNOWAT was able to provide a cleaner, greener alternative for solar cell manufacturers.The process also increases high throughput, thereby enabling the solar cell industry to fulfil European targets for implementing technology and improving competitiveness.