Prof. Stefan Glunz, a photovoltaics researcher and principal investigator at the Cluster of Excellence livMatS, has been awarded a Synergy Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Over six years, the ERC will provide Glunz and his partners in Switzerland and France with almost €10 million in total funding for the project ‘UltimatePV – Ultimate Photovoltaics’. The project aims to rethink the modern solar cell and develop a new generation of resource-efficient photovoltaic technologies with the highest conversion efficiencies. The University of Freiburg will receive 3.35 million euros for the project.
A new generation of solar cells
The use of novel photonic structures will significantly improve the optical properties of the solar cells, leading to a tenfold reduction in material consumption. The charge carrier concentration increases considerably in the resulting ultrathin solar cells. This makes it possible to extract the light-excited charge carriers via energy-selective contacts before they lose some of their energy through thermalization. ‘Such concepts could enable future efficiencies far exceeding the current state of the art and make a fundamental contribution to the energy transition’, says Glunz.
Glunz serves as professor for photovoltaic energy conversion at the University of Freiburg’s Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH) and as director of the photovoltaics research area at the Freiburg Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. Also collaborating on the project are Prof. Dr. Christoph Ballif from EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and Dr. Stéphane Collin from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, France. In addition, the project is supported by partner institutions like the Fraunhofer ISE, the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM), the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (C2N), and the Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France (IPVF).
About the ERC Synergy Grant
The ERC awards Synergy Grants to international, interdisciplinary research teams whose project fulfils the criterion of scholarly excellence and may be expected to produce promising results. This year, 66 of 712 submitted proposals were selected for funding.
Press release of the University of Freiburg
Press release of the ERC
livMatS profile of Stefan Glunz