Towards commercialisation with lightweight, flexible perovskite solar cells for residential photovoltaics
Philippe Holzhey a, Michael Prettl b, Silvia Collavini c, Nathan Chang d, Michael Saliba e
a Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
b Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan, 1108, Amsterdam, Netherlands
c San Sebastián, Spain
d The Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
e Institute for Photovoltaics (ipv), University of Stuttgart, Germany
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV24)
València, Spain, 2024 May 12th - 15th
Organizer: Bruno Ehrler
Oral, Philippe Holzhey, presentation 114
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.hopv.2024.114
Publication date: 6th February 2024

Metal-halide perovskites have emerged as a promising class of next-generation solar cells. Here, we assess what lifetimes and efficiencies perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have to reach to lower the price of commercial residential photovoltaic (PV) further. We find that using light and flexible substrates, as opposed to heavy and rigid ones, reduces the total installed system cost of PSCs. The flexibility and lighter weight culminate in a lower balance of systems (BOS) cost, as it is possible to use different mounting methods. Concretely, we analyse the scenario when the modules are directly stuck onto a roof without requiring a racking. That reduces both labour and material costs. This effectively lowers the necessary efficiency or lifetime of PSCs (T80 value) required to achieve the same electricity cost as commercialised silicon. A rigid perovskite module with 17% efficiency would need at least 24 years to be competitive with residential-installed silicon. In comparison, a light, flexible module with the same efficiency would only need to last 19 years. We find that flexible PSCs present a most promising commercialisation route because it can enable low manufacturing and BOS deployment costs, which opens up commercial viability at lower efficiencies or lifetimes. [1]

The authors thank David Feldman for the fruitful discussion and input. They also want to thank Galen Barbose for his help and advice.
P.H. and M.P. thank Elizabeth von Hauff for her support during their master’s.

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