HighLine Technology GmbH is a ISE spin-off from Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems with exclusive IP rights to redefine the standard METALLIZATION process to apply the small contact lines made of silver onto Si-solar cells. With silver costs for metallization as the 2nd most expensive step in solar cell production, the PV industry is being responsible for >10% of the global silver demand. When it comes to cell efficiency, mainstream PERC cells have achieved max 23.5% efficiency and €0.05/kW cost limits. The promising next step in cell technology/efficiency with Heterojunction cells (HJT) requires more than double the silver laydown compromising industry adoption despite its efficiency benefits above 26%. Designed to streamline metallization for today (PERC) and future (HJT) cells, HighLine FINE-LINE DISPENSING TECHNOLOGY enables cell producers the precise application of thinner contacts at 25% lower silver needs, 1% efficiency gains and 50% higher throughput.

SHINE PV will develop alternative technological routes to PV production for Silicon Heterojunction and TOPCon solar cells, covering the three key steps in the back-end manufacturing: metallization, post-processing and interconnection. SHINE PV will demonstrate different flows and down-select the most promising ones in terms of cost of ownership and high volume manufacturing readiness. Advanced equipment at TRL7 with Industry 4.0 dedicated features, innovative materials and solutions will be developed. For the metallization, SHINE PV will introduce parallel dispensing and plating as High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) alternative processes to incumbent screen printing, with the objective of demonstrating the complete or partial replacement of Ag with Cu, a fundamental step to enable Tera-Watt scale production levels. Moreover, SHINE PV will increase the efficiency through cell post-processing by applying Light Soaking process in HVM and recover the cutting-induced losses by Edge Re-Passivation. For the module making step, the innovations in interconnection proposed are Twill and Shingling processes and HVM equipment. Both will leverage on the optimization of the metallization and post-processing steps and will demonstrate their potential in terms of superior electrical properties, aesthetics, reliability, and compatibility with premium module designs. The expectation of the project is to enable an increase of solar cell (or module) efficiency of 0.5% absolute versus the reference process with a simultaneous CoO reduction of 20%, due to reduced material costs and increased equipment productivity. SHINE PV project will demonstrate the integrated innovative processes and novel equipment both virtually and within physical pilots at industrial partners at TRL7. To our knowledge for all these technologies no production equipment is available for HVM worldwide, and we envision a great potential for a PV supply chain revamping in EU.

The IBC4EU project will develop cost effective and sustainable bifacial interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cell and module technology on pilot line level. Based on business cases from the whole value chain – ingot, wafer, cell and module – we will demonstrate that IBC technology is the most promising choice for a fast launch of GW scale PV production in the EU. Cost competitiveness not only against future heterojunction (HJT) and Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) technology but also present-day PERC and PERC technology will be demonstrated for the polyZEBRA and POLO IBC cell designs. To reach this goal, cost-effective production equipment will be developed and eco-design approaches will be employed to reduce the need for scarce materials such as silicon metal and silver and to maintain indium-free design. Pilot lines, interlinked on all levels of production, will help to reach GW scale mass production not only on cell but also on ingot, wafer and module level until 2030. The advantage of the chosen IBC technology is that it is based on existing production technology. Thus, the project will focus on improving existing processing steps on already available equipment, introducing some novel equipment to reduce the cost of ownership, and employing Industry 4.0 solutions for predictive maintenance, quality control and traceability. The feasibility of the chosen technologies and the innovative products will be evaluated by business-related parameters as well as performance characteristics which will be tested according to the relevant standards and in demo sites. The environmental impact will be monitored closely and eco-design approaches will be used to reduce the CO2 footprint, increase the resource efficiency and recyclability and improve in terms of circularity potential.