SmarTSolaR: Advanced Perovskite Solar Cells
- Challenge:Energy Innovation Challenge
- Co-Funders:European Union
- Phase:Seed
- Team Lead:Dr Sithara Pavithran, Dublin City University
- Team Co-Lead:Prof. Valeria Nicolosi, Trinity College Dublin
- Societal Impact Champion:Jane Hackett, Trinity College Dublin
Funders
Funded by: European Union & Government of Ireland
Increasing the use of renewables, with photovoltaics (PV) as a major component, is nearly universally highlighted as a major goal. Favourable public opinion and scientific consensus support the need for solar energy. The biggest challenges in PV today are:
– the need for higher efficiencies to accelerate deployment;
– the need to increase manufacturer’s margins so that growth is sustainable
– need for new applications that would make solar ubiquitous.
We can address these challenges by
– introducing low-cost manufacturing techniques and
– reducing cost of photovoltaics, which are mostly raw material costs at this point.
Our approach will provide a low-cost, efficient and recyclable alternative to commercial silicon solar cells that will also significantly reduce CO2 emissions. SmarTSolaR offers environmentally friendly innovative materials and a low-temperature manufacturing process for device development to overcome the challenge of efficiency, mass scale production, waste management and wide application.