Observatorio de I+D+i UPM

The Project, through a collaborative research between seven European and nine Japanese leading research centers in the field of concentration photovoltaics (CPV), pursues the improvement of present concentrator cell, module and system efficiency. Particular effort will be devoted to the development of multijunction solar cells (by researching on metamorphic, lattice match, inverted and bifacial growth, use of silicon substrates and incorporation of quantum nanostructures) with the objective of approaching the 50 % efficiency goal at cell level and 35% at module level (by incorporating advanced optics as for example Fresnel-Kohler concentrators). As a means to speed up the progress, the Project will also expand the use of characterization techniques suitable for CPV materials, cells, trackers, modules and systems by developing new ones, incorporating advanced semiconductor techniques to the field of photovoltaics (such as three dimensional real-time reciprocal space mapping, 3D-RTSM, piezoelectric photo-thermal and optical time resolved techniques) and by deploying a round robin scheme that allows the qualification and standardization of the results derived from the measurements.

To support all these studies from a global perspective and, in particular, to ensure an accurate forecast of the energy produced at system level, the Project plans to build a 50 kW concentrator plant. To achieve its goals,the Project is structured into five RTD workpackages: new materials and device characterization, development of novel device technologies and quantum nanostructures for CPV, development of advanced CPV cells, development of characterization tools for CPV cells, modules and systems and development of CPV modules and systems. To strength the collaboration between EU and Japan, the Proposal also foresees more than 20 interchange visits.