On the way to mass production: perovskite silicon tandem cells

In order to transfer tandem solar cells from laboratory scale to production, HZB is cooperating with the solar module manufacturer Meyer Burger, which has great expertise in heterojunction technology (HJT) for silicon modules. Within the framework of this cooperation, mass production-ready silicon bottom cells based on heterojunction technology are to be combined with a top cell based on perovskite technology.

Meyer Burger is a manufacturer of high-quality solar modules based on silicon heterojunction technology (HJT). Meyer Burger's research and development team has already developed HJT cells in recent years together with Bernd Stannowski's team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.

The HZB has great expertise in the field of perovskite solar cells. Recently, laboratory tandem solar cells combining heterojunction and perovskite have achieved record efficiencies of over 31 percent, largely due to the work of Steve Albrecht's group. However, such record-breaking tandem cells have only the laboratory-standard areas of 1 cm² and are partly produced with processes that are not scalable.

"We are therefore delighted to be cooperating with Meyer Burger to transfer this fantastic technology into application," says Bernd Stannowski, who heads the cooperation at HZB. A new cluster facility (KOALA) will also be used. This globally unique facility, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), makes it possible to produce perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells in a vacuum on industry-standard large wafers.

"Meyer Burger manufactures in Europe and thus creates high-quality jobs. In doing so, the company is exploiting technologies that were developed in Europe," says Rutger Schlatmann, director of the Photovoltaics Competence Centre Berlin (PVcomB) at HZB. The new cooperation agreement is set to run for three years.