Imagine making solar panels that don't need expensive, rare metals or energy-heavy manufacturing. Instead of thick silicon slabs, this project grows ultra-thin layers from a gas, similar to how some crystals are grown. It replaces precious materials like silver and indium with common alternatives to make panels cheaper and greener.
Current silicon heterojunction solar cells rely on expensive, energy-intensive wafer production and scarce materials like silver, indium, and bismuth, which limit cost-efficiency and sustainable scaling.
A lean process chain including ultra-thin epitaxial wafers, alternative passivation layers, and indium/silver/bismuth-free contact and metallization concepts.
If you are a PV module producer dealing with rising raw material costs — this project developed indium-free and silver-free contact layers that can reduce metallization costs by 50%. This allows for high-efficiency cells (>25.5%) without relying on scarce materials.
If you are a developer dealing with strict carbon footprint regulations — this project developed epitaxial wafers that offer up to 75% lower carbon footprint. This helps achieve terawatt-scale production while meeting aggressive sustainability targets.
If you are a wafer manufacturer dealing with high energy consumption during production — this project developed a gas-phase epitaxial growth process that reduces Si wafer costs by 50%. It produces ultra-thin wafers (90 µm) with high quality.
The project targets a 50% cost reduction for silicon wafers and a 50% cost reduction for both metallization and transparent conductive oxides (TCO).
Yes, the project focuses on processes that allow upscaling to larger sizes and high manufacturing throughput to enable terawatt-scale production.
Based on available project data, the project is in the execution phase (signed 2024), and specific licensing terms are not yet disclosed.
The technology aims to achieve solar cell efficiency greater than 25.5% and module efficiency greater than 23.5%.
The project period runs from May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2027, with validation and integration into mini-modules as a key objective.
The consortium is strongly industry-weighted with a 56% industry ratio, comprising 5 industrial partners (including 4 SMEs) and 4 research/academic entities. This balance suggests a high focus on commercial viability and manufacturing scalability rather than pure theoretical research, with the project coordinated by Forschungszentrum Jülich.
Contact Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH regarding the SiLEAN project
Contact us to explore licensing opportunities for indium-free solar contacts.
