Continuous Perovskite Solar Module Manufacturing—Scale-up Challenges and Solutions

Transitioning from research to industrial scale manufacture is a challenging task; renewable technology in particular must ensure that the pursuit of highly efficient and highly stable laboratory devices does not impose the requirement for expensive fabrication processes, scarce resources and inadmissible greenhouse gas emissions. Single junction metal halide perovskite cells (PSC), representing the next generation of solar energy harvesting, have recently achieved 25.7% certified efficiency on a lab scale: doubling in less than ten years. Screen-printed triple mesoscopic carbon electrode modules (mCPSC) are one of the leading perovskite solar cell technologies earmarked for scale-up and commercialisation as a consequence of the inherent lower manufacturing cost and exceptional stability. The reality of scaling from “lab to fab” requires three key stages to be addressed and overcome:<br/><br/>What is the optimum laboratory scale design that can be successfully up-scaled?<br/>What industrial scale optimisation is needed to best replicate the laboratory scale?<br/>How can industrial scale devices be measured and validly compared back to laboratory scale?<br/><br/>This work highlights the difference between a good laboratory cell a good scalable cell and how the end goal of scale-up has directed recent research into laboratory architecture. This includes incidental improvements to full scale modules made from separate studies, such as green perovskite technology research leading to an unexpected improvement in the infiltration process. Industrial scale optimisation to accommodate the batch fabrication of mCPSC modules is also detailed with consideration for further development to continuous production. Notably, the curing and subsequent cooling of triple stack devices constructed on glass substrate is identified as a significant bottleneck for a continuous production line and requires precise optimisation for large area modules. Similarly, the infiltration process is specifically adapted to account for a greater surface tension effect of the perovskite precursor. Finally, recent improvements in technological capability have granted the ability for 520 cm² modules to be measured and accurately correlated to their laboratory scale counter parts; underlining the successful scale-up efforts made in the last year. The culmination of systematically addressing the three key challenges is marked by the construction of a large outdoor array of modules at the Solar Heat Energy Demonstrator (SHED) in Port Talbot, UK. The external data collected from these modules over the last 10 months will be discussed and the route to full scale manufacture presented.