New NEXUS project for tandem perovskite PV gets green light

The European Commission has recently given the green light to an agreement to finance the NEXUS project, focused on the development of innovative processes for TANGO HJT/Perovskite technology for the production of sustainable and high-performance photovoltaic modules.

Coordinated by the University of Oxford, the NEXUS project is supported by a multidisciplinary consortium with 12 partners from 9 European countries; 5 industrial partners, including 2 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and 7 research and technology organizations.

The project will aim to speed up Europe's transition to clean energy thanks to the development of tandem perovskite-silicon technology, in line with the new European paradigm. This project uses a global approach to the eco-compatible design of photovoltaic systems based on sustainability and circularity, with the goal of reusing a large quantity of materials across the entire value chain. This type of innovation will improve energy yield and costs, helping ensure a clean energy transition and a reduction in the EU's dependence on raw materials supplied from outside Europe.

The goal of NEXUS, which is part of the EU's Horizon EUROPEframework program for research and innovation for the period 2021-2027, is specifically to develop bifacial heterojunction (HJT) photovoltaic cells that capture more solar light by using both sides of the cell, and to incorporate the 'Tandem' structure, which utilizes two overlapping cells, thereby making it possible to capture more light compared to single cell structures. This combination enables photovoltaic modules to achieve an average increase in energy production of more than a third compared to current market standards, with efficiency levels exceeding 30%.

TANGO is an acronym of 'iTaliAN pv Giga factOry', because the new cells are also the result of work conducted at the 3SUN factory in Catania, which recently won a substantial grant from the Commission in Brussels to transform the facility into a Gigafactory and become Europe's largest solar plant for the production of photovoltaic panels.