Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) provides both essential aspects of substitution of traditional building materials, hence with potential low electricity costs, and high quality architectural design. It has the potential to contribute significantly to clean electricity generation, in line with EU policies, as well as to contribute to the rebuild of a stronger European industrial sector in the field of solar energy. So far, BIPV has remained mostly limited to emblematic façade and roof demonstration projects with standard modules very often just added on top of an existing finished building. This project will help to break the multiple barriers, which have been holding back the diffusion of BIPV by: - Supporting the industrialisation of new material and process for the manufacturing of multi-functional BIPV elements, with a focus on break-through transformative approaches to realise, in a cost effective way, aesthetical modules. - Working at improved manufacturing process, allowing the call’s targeted cost reductions, To allow a stronger market deployment of the new technologies, the project will: - Develop a business model and exploitation strategy for each key stakeholders of the whole value chain including for the architectural and building sectors and will enable an improved awareness and coordination among the multiple stakeholders involved in a building/renovation process, - Demonstrate the results of the project through real case spectacular demonstrators and through the implementation of an innovative communication plan dedicated to experts such as architects and builders as well to a large public audience. The unique and multi-disciplinary consortium of BE-Smart, representing the full value chain, will demonstrate cost effective new BIPV product concepts from their technological, planning, normative, installation and social aspects in order to accelerate the implementation process.

PILATUS is a 3-year project aiming to demonstrate by 2025 three digitalised pilot lines for the production in Europe of silicon wafers, solar cells, and modules. PILATUS will leverage on the patented and already proven back-contacted silicon heterojunction “tunnel-IBC” technology to ensure achieving its ambitious targets. PILATUS will prove a production capacity of 15 MW for M10 silicon wafers in Norway using polysilicon from Europe and demonstrate the feasibility of an expansion to 5 GW wafer production capacity. PILATUS’ PV module pilot line will reach a minimum of 170 MW of annual production capacity, accompanied with 190 MW cell capacity that by itself adds 30% to the current total capacity for PV cell production in Europe. Combining inline metrology and outdoor monitoring with the support of Industry 4.0 concepts all along the production chain, the cells and modules fabricated on PILATUS’ pilot lines will be analysed and feedback provided to the manufacturing process to ensure reaching ≥ 90 % yield at the end of the project. With the goal to establish PV modules with high durability, PILATUS targets to demonstrate the way towards > 40 years product lifetime by gaining fundamental insights into the degradation mechanisms and providing mitigation solutions thanks to the inline and outdoor metrology units that will be developed in the scope of the project. Further, PILATUS will prove a reduced environmental footprint compared to current technologies by demonstrating modules fully made from recycled materials, eco-design practices to facilitate the dismantling of PV panels, and manufacturing plants compliant with environmental standards. In short, PILATUS will contribute to re-building a “made in Europe”, leading-edge, competitive PV industry with the entire value chain been retained in Europe, compliant to the latest environmental standards, hence fostering the affordability, the security of supply, and the sustainability of the future EU low-carbon energy system.

Beyond building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), slowly but steadily gaining adoption and settling as a more mature, recognized and reliable technology, the increasing interest of IPV solutions has recently started to expand towards other market segments. A curious gaze at our nearest environment allows identifying endless opportunities in which the implementation of IPV solutions could be addressed, bringing synergies, innovation and added value to important market segments such as infrastructures, transport, agriculture, urban environment, low-power electronic devices, etc. This idyllic approach brings, nevertheless, important challenges in the manufacturing, product development and effective integration of these multifunctional PV devices over final applications due to the fundamentally different specifications coming from each sector, which hinders the offer of a ‘one-fits-all’ technological approach. In addition, customization and flexibility in design is still constrained by existing manufacturing capacity and sophistication degree, which is, as of today, very much oriented towards more standardized manufacturing processes based on traditional PV equipment and processes. In this context, SEAMLESS-PV is conceived to answer this challenge by addressing (1) the development of advanced flexible automated PV equipment manufacturing based on high efficiency c-Si technologies, (2) the upscale of new manufacturing processes presenting key features (e.g. lightness, enhanced integrability) and cost reductions that enable the seamless integration of PV over final applications and (3) the development of a set of IPV products demonstrating cost-competitiveness and compliance with market requirements and expectations. The project will demonstrate this new manufacturing capacity at pilot level and showcase the opportunity for European IPV manufacturers and end-users to unleash the potential of this sector.