25 Year Lifetime for Flexible Buildings Integrated Photovoltaics

Gross, Mark E.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S.)

关键词: Substrates;    Rain;    Capacity;    Thin Films;    Implementation;   

DOI  :  10.2172/991089
RP-ID  :  PNNL-19630
RP-ID  :  AC05-76RL01830
RP-ID  :  991089

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Although preliminary proof-of-principle of the efficacy of barrier materials and processes, first developed by Battelle at PNNL and commercialized by Vitex, has been demonstrated at the laboratory scale, there are several challenges to the practical commercial implementation of these developments in the Buildings Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) market. Two important issues that are addressed in this project are identifying a low cost substrate material that can survive in the outside environment (rain, heat, dust, hail, etc.) for 25 years and developing an encapsulation method for the photovoltaic (PV) cells that can meet the required barrier performance without driving the cost of the total barrier package out of range (remaining below $3.00/Wp). Without these solutions, current encapsulation technologies will limit the use of PV for BIPV applications. Flexible, light-weight packaging that can withstand 25 years in the field is required for a totally flexible integrated PV package. The benefit of this research is to make substantial progress in the development of a cost-effective, viable thin film barrier package which will be a critical enabling technology to meet the Solar America Initiative cost and device reliability goals, and to make photovoltaics (PV) more cost-competitive with electricity generated using fossil fuels. Increased PV installations will enable increased US electrical capacity and reduce dependence on imported oil through increased utilization of a widely abundant source of renewable energy (sunlight).