I-Corps: Customer Discovery for Light Weight Photovoltaics

University Of Toledo, Toledo OH

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to commercialize the technology this I-Corps team has developed for low-cost, high-performance solar cells. Laboratory testing has already demonstrated power output that is competitive with the best commercially available devices and improvements are still being made. The materials used in the proposed design are common and devices can be manufactured in a few simple steps. Depositing a pre-mixed solution at relatively low temperatures can produce these solar cells. This type of production lends itself to "roll-to-roll" fabrication on lightweight, flexible materials. The use of common materials and simple production techniques has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of solar energy. In addition to large scale power generation, inexpensive, lightweight, flexible solar cells could find new applications in construction, portable power generation in disaster relief efforts, and military applications such as drones and remote power. This team has developed a simple, and readily scalable, technique to rapidly and inexpensively produce large grain perovskite absorbers for perovskite solar cells. The results indicate that the large grain perovskite material this team has created results in fewer defects and increased device performance, similar to what is seen with other thin film solar cells. With all other photovoltaic (PV) devices, large grains are essential for high?]energy conversion. The team's goal is to determine the market interest in perovskite solar cell technology. This will help them determine the best path forward with the proposed technology - should they seek to become a provider of material, a perovskite solar cell manufacturer, or just license the technology to a company already in the solar marketplace. The team intends to learn to identify and quantify the metrics that must be met for adoption of this technology.