Solar film has been printed in rolls like wallpaper

British company Power Roll, together with scientists from the University of Sheffield, reported progress in roll-to-roll production of perovskite solar film. The improved process promises to reduce the cost of thin-film solar panels and increase the efficiency of electricity generation. Such panels in the form of a film can be glued anywhere, turning any free surface into an energy generator.

Image source: Power Roll

Power Roll has been working on roll-to-roll technology for the production of perovskite solar films since 2012. The company’s goal is to create a process for the most inexpensive and fastest production of large volumes of solar panels. Roll-to-roll technology is ideal for this. Power Roll is confident that in the near future they will be able to produce a volume of thin-film products sufficient to generate 1 GW of solar energy.

Collaboration with scientists from the University of Sheffield helped bring this dream a little closer. The joint work led to a revision of the cell design. All conductive contacts were moved to the back of the film so that they did not block the light of the perovskite cells. This is a traditional approach in the production of solar panels – with contacts on the back. Using this experience, Power Roll increased the efficiency of the panels by 12.8%, and also got rid of indium in the composition of the conductive contacts, which will make production cheaper.

An interesting method of manufacturing thin Power Roll panels is that they undergo a kind of embossing during processing, which creates many parallel microgrooves in the material. There are 500,000 microchannel structures per square meter, coated with conductive materials and photoactive perovskite inks. The protective film layers allow the printed rolls to remain stable and increase their durability.

It can be assumed that the microchannel structure allows for better collection of indirect light, and also makes the material resistant to deformation. The development looks interesting, but the team is not yet ready to talk about the transition to mass production. Samples are still being tested using X-ray scanners, which makes it possible to debug the process of uniformly applying layers and avoid defects in the case of mass production.