U.S. nudges India in the direction of PSCs as a cheaper solar tech

The United States has urged India to explore manufacturing a cheaper alternative to silicon solar cells, when U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette addressed a virtual press conference at the conclusion of the India energy forum at the IHS CERA Week.

Brouillette said India was "perfectly positioned as a potential manufacturer" of perovskite cells, on which the U.S. was conducting research at its national laboratory in Colorado. He mentioned the high dependence on Chinese technology, saying "We have seen recently with this pandemic, supply chain issues have arisen with countries like China and in certain cases we have become overly dependent upon one country,"

India has an ambitious plan to increase its renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, nearly three-fifths of which will be solar power. The Indian nation, which imports over 80% of its solar cells and modules from its neighbor, aims to increase domestic manufacturing but has so far had little success.

"It is a technology we want to share with India, we think it is better done there than other parts around the world," Brouillette said.

"PSCs offer a much lower production cost compared to silicon solar cells and its efficiency has improved dramatically," said Sandheep Ravishankar, a scientist researching PSCs at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany.

"However, PSCs are still not stable enough to be considered as a commercial competitor of silicon," Sandheep said.

Posted: Oct 30,2020 by Roni Peleg