Buonassisi Group Recieves DOE Grant
Professor Tonio Buonassisi’s Laboratory for Photovoltaics Research, in partnership with CaliSolar, Inc. and BP Solar, Inc., was recently awarded funding by the U.S. Department of Energy for a project entitled “Defect Engineering, Cell Processing, and Modeling for High-Performance, Low-Cost Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics.” This project will characterize defects and engineer their distribution within a solar cell to close the efficiency gap between industrial multicrystalline and high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon cells, while preserving the cost advantage of these low-cost, high–volume substrates. The project is targeting 18-22% efficient cells at manufacturing costs of less than $1 per peak watt. DOE will provide up to $1.5 million for this approximately $1.9 million project.
