A new consortium of academic and industry partners, Tandems for Efficient and Advanced Modules using Ultrastable Perovskites, or TEAMUP, looks to help mitigate climate change by making a new generation of solar technology commercially viable.
The three-year TEAMUP collaboration, which is planned to start in the fall of 2023, is supported by $9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. TEAMUP seeks to maximize the performance and reliability of tandem solar panels for consumer use.
Academic and government partners in the consortium include the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU); the University of Colorado Boulder; the University of California, Merced; Northwestern University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Beyond Silicon, which specializes in tandem solar panel technology and was founded by Holman and ASU electrical engineering Assistant Research Professor Zhengshan Yu, is involved in the industry efforts to make the technology viable for commercial and consumer use. Swift Solar and Tandem PV, both tandem solar technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area, round out the industry consortium members.
“The U.S. has lost its photovoltaic manufacturing prominence to countries in Asia,” Yu says. “Perovskite and silicon tandem technology is the next opportunity to return the U.S. to a leading position of photovoltaic manufacturing. This technology will make solar technology more affordable to decarbonize the grid and be a key energy generation technology for a sustainable future.”
Yu believes that the TEAMUP public-private partnership is a great boost to help industry commercialize tandem solar technology. “As scientific challenges still remain to make tandem panels commercially viable, a consortium of industry partners plus academic institutions is the best way to achieve that goal,” he says.