Heriot Watt University, through a SUPA START Award, has helped Power Textiles Ltd improve the manufacturing process of their innovative textile-based solar cells.
Flexible Solar Cell Process Improvement
Power Textiles Limited and Heriot-Watt University
Heriot Watt University, through a SUPA START Award, has helped Power Textiles Ltd improve the manufacturing process of their innovative textile-based solar cells.
A recently completed project has paved the way for increased process efficiency in an innovative Selkirk-based company. Power Textiles Ltd is developing revolutionary fabrics that use solar energy to create power for buildings, tents, awnings, agricultural installations etc. Photovoltaic solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity but conventional cells are rigid meaning that they can normally be attached only to flat surfaces. Power Textiles are aiming to overcome this restriction by integrating cells onto flexible substrates and textile fabrics for various applications.
The company's core product is a flexible solar cell on a woven textile, comprising a sandwich of thin-film silicon between electrical contacts. Different materials are used in the composition of the cell, with conflicting requirements in terms of conductance, flexibility, and conformality. Power Textiles had a requirement to optimise the material performance and improve contacting procedures. Specifically, performance tests were required to inform a draft specification for the solar cells. The company contacted SUPA for help and were awarded a SUPA START feasibility study with Heriot Watt University.
The aim of the project was to analyse films of each conductor type (metallic or polymeric), varying their deposition conditions and their thicknesses, in order to determine electrical continuity and conductance. Material combinations were to be measured in the solar cell "sandwich" configuration for selection of the best.
Through a series of tests and experiments, the project successfully defined the conditions for coating textiles with the conducting electrodes and defined the conditions for applying the various conductor layers to textile substrates for flexible solar cells.