Photovoltaics

The significance of photovoltaics is increasing greatly both nationally and internationally in the context of sustainably organised energy supplies. In Switzerland's Energy Strategy 2050, the plan is to supply almost half of the electricity required from new, renewable sources, such as photovoltaics. The Photovoltaics research programme coordinates the promotion of projects on research topics which will deliver new approaches to the entire range of topics in this field.

Current research priorities

Priorities of the research promoted by the SFOE:

• Further reduction of costs throughout the entire supply chain: increasing the efficiency of single components, industrial implementation of new products and manufacturing procedures, quality assurance, increasing plant reliability
• New solutions for the integration of photovoltaic systems into buildings and the electrical grid
• Sustainability: reduction in the amount of energy and materials used in production or in recycling
• Further development and industrial implementation of various types of solar cell technology, such as silicon-based heterojunction solar cells, CIGS thin-film 12 solar cells, and tandem cell concepts for a high degree of efficiency
• Development of new types of modules for improved integration of solar arrays on roofs and facades
• Integration of photovoltaic plant into the grid (modelling and prognosis, development of multifunctional components and interplay with decentralised storage systems)
• Quality assurance and reliability studies for inverters and modules
• Sustainability studies on various components of photovoltaic systems, such as energy payback period for photovoltaic modules

Links

pv.energyresearch.ch

Last modification 13.03.2018