Extended Scientific Topics 2024
1. Sustainability, Life Cycle Assessments and Circularity
- Life-cycle assessments - Eco-designs for cells and modules
- Critical materials management (e.g. Ag, In, Bi, Pb) and possible routes for TW/y PV manufacturing
2. Silicon Materials
- Silicon feedstock
- Silicon crystallization, wafering and direct-wafer production
- Defects in silicon, Defect engineering
3. Emerging Technologies for Silicon Cells, including Tandem
- Advanced light management, ultra-thin devices and new applications (e.g. space)
- Novel passivating contacts and transparent materials, new metallization approaches
- Si-based multijunction cells in combination with perovskites, III-V and alternative materials
- High and record efficiency devices
- Cell characterizations and simulations
4. Advanced Manufacturing, Challenges for Industrial Devices
- Digitalization, data processing and machine learning in PV
- Process integration, low-cost manufacturing & new manufacturing tools
- Advances in industrial solar cells (e.g. PERC, SHJ, TOPCon, IBC): wet processes, light management, junction formation, surface passivation, metallization
5. Module Technologies
- Interconnection, module processing and materials for TW scale manufacturing
- Solutions & challenges for X-IPV (eg: buildings, vehicles, etc.)
- Module characterizations and simulations
6. Energy Yield, Reliability & Cost
- Cells and Modules reliability and degradation mechanisms
- Energy yield
- Cost studies - Bankability