Project

StrukturSolar

The cooperative research college StrukturSolar (funding code 03SF0417A) is one of seven pilot projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMBF), in which the expertise of universities in applied research and universities in basic research are to be used in a joint research project to complement each other.

The detailed title "Innovative structuring concepts for next-generation solar cells" already outlines the program. Various structuring methods (plasma-chemical, wet and electrochemical, mechanical, laser), with which Anhalt University of Applied Sciences and Martin Luther University have application and basic research and development experience, are to be used in innovative concepts to optimize light and charge carrier management in solar cells. The aim is to keep an eye on cost-effective technological feasibility from the outset, so that the research work can lead to an increase in the efficiency of solar cells with a relatively small increase in production costs. Both crystalline silicon solar cells (with the aim of achieving a lower slice thickness than is usual today) and thin-film solar cells (copper indium/gallium diselenide (CIGS) and organic solar cells) are being investigated.

Eight scientific staff are working as doctoral students under the supervision of 13 university lecturers and researchers from both universities on various complementary research tasks within the project. In joint seminars, there is an exchange of experience and mutual stimulation as well as constructive and critical monitoring of research progress. The research college began its work in 2012 and will complete it in the course of 2015. The 13 university lecturers and researchers involved have material science and technology-oriented expertise in photovoltaics as well as methodological knowledge in the structuring processes mentioned or in relevant scientific analysis methods for material or solar cell characterization.

Following the successful completion of StrukturSolar on September 30, 2015, funding was granted for the follow-up project StrukturSolar II from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2018. The research content is the continuation of particularly successful topics from the first phase, partly with a new focus, but also some new topics, such as PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact) cells or perovskite/silicon tandem cells. Some of the participating university lecturers from the first phase have left, partly because they have changed universities in the meantime, while a new colleague has joined them. In StrukturSolar II, several doctoral students, half of whom work primarily at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences and the other half at Martin Luther University, will again be supervised by professors from both institutions.

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