EXCURSION TO EMPA: LABORATORY FOR THIN FILMS AND PHOTOVOLTAICS

The department of thin films and photovoltaics at EMPA deals with the most recent technologies of solar cells – namely the CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenide) and perovskite solar cells. Special about these solar cells is their very thin diameter which makes them flexible, printable and cheap in material costs. In addition to that and because of their transparency they become suitable for the building of tandems. Tandem solar cells are two different solar cells fixed on top of each other to allow them to use the entire spectrum of the incoming light, which ultimately makes them more efficient. Evidently matches of silicon and perovskite are already more efficient than ordinary silicon solar cells; CIGS and perovskite are still less efficient, but cheaper in material costs.

Thanks to PhD-Student Thierry Moser, who gave us a great introduction into the technologies and the labs.

EMPA: Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics

text: Johanna Denecke, Leopold Seiler, Anna Maxwell, Lu Meiying