CX-100656 Categorical Exclusion Determination

Improving reliability and reducing cost in CdTe photovoltaics via grain boundary engineering
Award Number: DE-EE0007545
CX(s) Applied: A9, B3.6
Solar Energy Technologies Office
Date: 7/12/2016
Location(s): IL
Office(s): Golden Field Office

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) to develop a multi-scale approach that will bridge the current “information gap” between the atomic-scale mechanisms and the millimeter-scale effects currently measured in polycrystalline photovoltaic (PV) modules. This would be accomplished through fabrication of materials and characterization, modeling, and device-level testing of those materials in order to develop disruptive technologies for reducing the cost and increasing the reliability of polycrystalline PV modules.

Proposed activities would include synthesis, characterization, fabrication and in-lab testing of single-crystal and polycrystalline PV devices. Synthesis activities would be completed by EpiSolar at their dedicated industrial research facility in Bolingbrook, IL and the University of Texas at Dallas (UT-Dallas) in Richardson, TX. Characterization would be undertaken by UIC in Chicago, IL, UT-Dallas and the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in Golden, CO. Fabrication and in-lab testing would be completed by EpiSolar and computational modeling would be completed by CSM and Argonne National Lab in Argonne, IL. The facilities in which lab work would occur are purpose-built for the type of activities being proposed; therefore, no adverse impacts to sensitive resources are expected as a result of the proposed project. No change in the use, mission or operation of existing facilities would arise out of this effort and all applicable permits either are or would be in place before work is begun.