The Platform-ZERO consortium is a multidisciplinary group of 12 partners all over Europe.
This month, we are happy to introduce ZSW, the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg.
About ZSW
ZSW was established in 1988 by the German state of Baden-Württemberg, together with universities, research institutions, and commercial firms. It is a non-profit foundation under the civil code. Solar energy and hydrogen technologies are currently maturing on an industrial scale and will be major components in the sustainable energy supply of the 21st century. Today the ZSW has approximately 350 employees and 100 student and scientific assistants and is one of the leading energy research institutes in Europe. Joint ventures and the growing proportion of industry commissions demonstrate the consistent application relevance of their work.
Role in the project
In Platform-ZERO, ZSW leads the testing and validation of the project demonstrators. Specifically the AI-based process monitoring platform developed for the in-line assessment of the selected PV case studies with different flow-type production, and the feasibility assessment of the Platform-ZERO tool as flexible and autonomous quality control check for real time industrial process monitoring. ZSW is also leading the German demonstrator on high efficiency copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar modules (i.e. Sheet-to- Sheet).
The above photo shows a typical thin-film photovoltaics sample from the inline-deposition system of ZSW. On 30x30cm² of soda lime glass thin layers of molybdenum as a back-contact and CIGS as the light absorber are deposited. Within the project the samples are investigated also after the subsequent processing steps of buffer and front-contact deposition.
Contact us:
Stefan Paetel, Wissenschaftler, Photovoltaik: Materialforschung, Gruppenleiter CIGS