NICE SOLAR ENERGY GMBH

Their core work

NICE Solar Energy GmbH is a German thin-film photovoltaic manufacturer based in Schwäbisch Hall, specializing in CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) solar cell technology. Their core work involves developing high-efficiency thin-film solar cells and the production processes needed to manufacture them at industrial scale. Their website points to Manz AG, a major German production equipment manufacturer, suggesting NICE Solar either operates as a Manz subsidiary or is closely integrated with industrial-scale solar manufacturing capabilities. In EU research projects, they contribute as industry practitioners — bringing real-world fabrication expertise and process knowledge to academic-led consortia pushing toward next-generation solar cell efficiencies.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the 2015–2018 period, NICE Solar was focused squarely on pushing CIGS cell efficiency toward the 25% threshold — an engineering challenge demanding precise control of absorber composition, interface quality, and contact design. By 2020–2023, their focus had expanded from single-junction CIGS to tandem architectures, combining perovskite top cells with CIS bottom cells to access efficiency gains beyond what either material can achieve alone. This is a deliberate and technically coherent progression: mastering the base technology first, then using it as the foundation for a fundamentally more complex next-generation approach.

NICE Solar is moving from optimizing a mature thin-film technology toward building next-generation tandem photovoltaics — making them a relevant partner for any consortium working at the intersection of perovskite and chalcogenide solar cells.

How they like to work

NICE Solar has participated in both of their H2020 projects as a consortium partner, never as coordinator — a pattern typical of industrial companies that contribute manufacturing and process expertise while leaving project management to research institutes or universities. With 19 unique partners across just 2 projects, they operate inside large, internationally diverse consortia rather than tight bilateral collaborations. This suggests they are comfortable integrating into complex multi-partner projects and likely contribute a focused, well-defined technical role rather than broad leadership.

Despite only two projects, NICE Solar has built connections with 19 different partners across 11 countries — a broad European footprint for a focused industrial participant. This diversity reflects the international nature of the thin-film and perovskite solar research communities, where leading groups are spread across Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, and beyond.

What sets them apart

NICE Solar occupies a rare position as an industrial thin-film solar manufacturer that participates in frontier academic research — not as a funder or token industry partner, but as a technical contributor with real fabrication capability. Their progression from CIGS efficiency records to perovskite-tandem development shows they are tracking the technological frontier, not standing still with a legacy product line. For a consortium that needs both perovskite and chalcogenide thin-film expertise under one roof, they are a natural fit that few purely academic partners can replicate.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Sharc25
  Targeted 25% efficiency in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin-film cells — a world-class benchmark that placed NICE Solar among the most ambitious CIGS research efforts in Europe during 2015–2018.
• PERCISTAND
  An all-thin-film perovskite-on-CIS tandem device, one of the technically most ambitious photovoltaic architectures in recent EU research, directly building on NICE Solar's CIGS foundation.