Solar photovoltaic technology on rough low carbon steel substrates for building integrated photovoltaics: A complete fabrication sequence

Assessing the potential of steel as a substrate for building integrated photovoltaic applications

“…The ongoing pressure for PV manufacturers to reduce costs at every level highlights the need for ongoing research into the use of low cost materials at all stages of the value chain. This study extends the research in Martinez et al [23] to evaluate the industrial viability of utilising a steel substrate and IL at production scale level. The high level physical properties of products that utilise a steel substrate are shown in Figure 1 a) OPV based PV product and b) a-Si product.…”

“…Previous studies have discussed the deposition of thin film PV technologies directly on traditional building materials such as roof tiles and steel based products. Researchers highlight a number of advantages over traditional rigid c-Si based PV products that are directly related to the physical properties and efficiency characteristics of thin film technologies in real world operating conditions [23]. These characteristics together with the abilities of thin film products to be more effectively integrated within building infrastructure, are deemed to compensate for the disparity in efficiencies when compared to c-Si based systems [24], [7].…”

“…The research supported the potential for utilising sheet steel as a substrate material, however, the results in this study are only applicable to specific stainless steel types. The study by Martinez et al [23] highlights the technical feasibility of utilising an IL with a steel substrate based on a single junction a-Si PV layer. The research established the technical and lab-scale potential for an IL centric approach using a rough galvanised steel type and their application for BIPV products.…”

“…After testing a wide range of IL materials, these two were identified as the best materials to develop into steel BIPV products as they show a combination of 1) good technical properties (low surface roughness, high electrical insulation), 2) relatively low cost in small volume lab-based tests and 3) can be deposited by a R2R compatible upscale process that could be applied into a steel coating line. Blue Ink is an expensive commercial product (although good volume discounts are available) whereas SolGel F1 is an in-house mixed and prepared option [56]. Blue Ink is applied by screen printing and has a low wastage, whereas SolGel F1 is applied by spray coating, which can be a wasteful process.…”

Spray coated silver nanowires as transparent electrodes in OPVs for Building Integrated Photovoltaics applications

“…Therefore, this IL layer must planarise the surface, as well as be an insulator to the steel substrate, which is important for large area monolithic cell integration. Typical ILs are composed of single or multi-layers, using ceramic materials such as SiO x and Al 2 O 3 deposited by vacuum (physical vapour deposition (PVD) and plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD)) or non-vacuum (sol-gel, anodization) techniques [10,11]. To date, the best surface roughness achieved is around R A = 12 nm using vacuum-deposited radio frequency PVD onto stainless steel substrates [12].…”