On March 25, 2021, The Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) selected two projects to create a neutral, independent perovskite validation and bankability center under the SETO Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite Funding Program. The goal of this center is to verify perovskite photovoltaic (PV) device performance and address acceptance and bankability challenges. This center will enable confidence in the long-duration field performance of perovskite PV technologies, which have shown potential for high efficiency and low production costs.
Approach
Two national labs were selected to perform these projects and will collaborate to form one integrated center led by Sandia National Laboratories. The center will leverage the labs’ expertise and facilities to understand and predict the operational lifetimes and bankability of perovskite technologies and improve knowledge.
The center will be responsible for the following:
- Developing, refining, and validating accelerated life-test protocols;
- Validating devices in the field to improve understanding of stability and performance issues;
- Investigating the environmental impact of perovskite technologies;
- Serving as an objective source of information and analysis for the investment and finance communities; and
- Accelerating cycles of innovation and speeding commercial development.
Selectees
-- Award and cost share amounts are subject to change pending negotiations --
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
Project Name: PV PACT: PV Perovskite Accelerator for Commercial Technologies
Location: Albuquerque, NM
DOE Award Amount: $9 million
Project Summary: The Perovskite PV Accelerator for Commercial Technologies (PACT) is a validation center that develops and improves indoor and outdoor performance characterization methods, develops and validates accelerated qualification testing for early failures, researches degradation and failure modes, and validates outdoor performance. The team blends the independence of Sandia National Laboratories with the technical expertise of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This project aims to create fair and effective test protocols to evaluate perovskite technology as it is scaled up from R&D cells to prototype modules.
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
Project Name: CHEETA: Center for Heuristic Evaluation of Emerging Technology Advancement
Location: Golden, CO
DOE Award Amount: $5 million
Project Summary: The mission of the Center for Heuristic Evaluation of Emerging Technology Advancement (CHEETA) is to establish reliability test protocols, centralize reliability and field performance data, verify perovskite module performance, and support bankability. CHEETA will develop accurate, validated, qualification test protocols for modules containing perovskite solar cells (PSC), building a bridge between the photovoltaic system market and the PSC research and manufacturing communities. Using a common vocabulary and procedures, they can quantitatively assess module reliability with uniform tests to accelerate market acceptance. CHEETA integrates commercial bankability service providers and is open to all PSC module producers to increase transparency, confidence, and acceptance of this emerging technology.
Learn more about the other topics in the funding program.
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