Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite Funding Program Validation and Bankability Center

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: This project team has the combined expertise of Sandia and Los Alamos National Lab researchers, commercial PV test laboratory CFV Labs, engineering and assessment firm Black & Veatch, and the Electric Power Research Institute. PV PACT will bring together industry, investors, project developers, independent engineers, test labs, equipment manufacturers, and model developers to map a path to commercialization of perovskite PV technologies. PACT will develop performance and reliability test protocols that can be performed by commercial PV test labs using standard equipment. These will be formalized into industrial standards during the project. In parallel, PACT will investigate relationships between module design and performance stability and degradation. Perovskite-specific technology readiness levels will be defined and used to rank technology improvements and establish an incentive system to bring companies into the center. PACT will offer a tiered bankability program that helps perovskite PV companies trying to commercialize their module technologies. The center will deploy more than 50 kilowatts of perovskite PV systems in multiple climates in order to validate performance and reliability in the field.

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.