New design for a flexible solar cell that is easier to manufacture

The challenge of developing a manufacturing process for producing a commercially viable flexible DSSC led the CRC-P research team to invent and seek patent protection for an alternative DSSC design, a back contact cell that uses thin film metal electrodes rather than expensive transparent conducting oxide (TCO) glass electrodes, and that is consequently flexible and light weight.

Most importantly, this back contact DSSC design is amenable to reel-to-reel printing, making it potentially substantially cheaper to produce than the standard TCO glass-based solar cells. The CRC-P team is currently developing a prototype module of this back contact DSSC using all in-house produced components with the objective of demonstrating an all-Australian made flexible solar cell module. This newsletter describes the expertise of the research groups involved in this development and some of the technologies used to produce the components and to manufacture the flexible solar cells.