Ultra-efficient and stable perovskite tandem solar cells for extreme conditions in space (INPERSPACE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and Processes Engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2029-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

INPERSPACE focuses on an emerging but extremely urgent challenge in Europe: meeting the sharply increasing demand for space-grade photovoltaics (PVs) due to the recent privatization of the space industry. Today’s modern III–V/Ge-based PVs fall short of answering this demand as the new space era requires cost-effective and high-speed processable PVs, on top of the existing high power density requirement. All-perovskite tandem PVs are excellent candidates fulfilling all these requirements. However, their stability must be ensured under ‘synergistic extremes’ from ground to orbit deployment such as high vacuum, particle radiation, high ultraviolet light, frequent temperature cycles (in orbit), vibrations (in flight), and humidity (before lift-off). Unless these concerns are addressed, we risk substantially underutilizing the emerging space technologies in the new space era. INPERSPACE aims to realize this with two core pillars: 1) creating ultra-efficient (>30% at space spectrum) all-perovskite tandem solar cells on lightweight substrates; 2) investigating the fundamental failure modes of these devices under synergistic stressors typical of the extreme space environment, focusing on combinations of stressors with thermal cycling as the most decisive, yet frequently overlooked, stressor for stability in space. I will achieve these goals by i) creating new perovskite compositions to eliminate the performance losses, ii) elucidating the origin of the instability of the devices from nano to macroscale and module level, iii) implementing groundbreaking methodologies to solve stability issues. INPERSPACE is an exceptionally timely and exciting research project. The created knowledge will immediately revolutionize the space PV market and set the agenda in other domains such as perovskite-based terrestrial PVs and other optoelectronic devices. The work realises the promise of a versatile PV technology envisaged to be part of life-changing technologies for billions of people.

Keywords: optoelectronics,green energy,space photovoltaics,metal halide perovskite,hybrid materials,bandgap engineering,tandem solar cells,multijunction solar cells,ultra efficient solar cells,lightweight solar cells,low cost solar cells,extreme space conditions,satellite constellations,thermomechanical properties,operational stability,thermal stability,real environment tests,encapsulation,delamination,thin films,molecular linkers,adhesion,radiation hardness,stress,defects,passivation,photophysical properties