Technology and Sustainability Assessment

Numerous new technologies and processes are being developed at Fraunhofer ISE so that solar cells can be produced on an industrial scale faster, better and above all less expensively. Making a decision as to which approach should preferably be pursued requires not only a scientifically well-founded technology assessment, but also detailed knowledge of the associated costs. It is thus essential to have a fundamental cost analysis of both current standard processes and various new technologies and process sequences.

Thanks to direct contact with the respective process specialists, both in-house and externally, we can provide a well-founded evaluation of processes. The range extends from methods which are still being carried out on a laboratory scale and are only in the development phase to the investigation of more complex process sequences in a near-industrial pilot production environment. The findings obtained provide the basis for reliably estimating the cost structure of industrial manufacture for different solar cell structures and for different process routes.