The Dutch research institute has presented what it describes as the world’s first perovskite-based roof tile, achieving up to 13.8% efficiency on standalone modules and 12.4% when installed on a curved surface. The flexible modules were produced using TNO’s experimental roll-to-roll platform,

The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) has unveiled today a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) tile based on perovskite solar cell technology.

The new product is billed as the world's first perovskite solar tile.

“This demonstrator is supported by the Province of North Brabant through the project ‘Solar manufacturing industry to Brabant, Solliance 2.0’. Additional funding was received from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme for the Luminosity project,” TNO said in a statement. “The work was also partly funded by the National Growth Fund programme SolarNL.”

The Dutch research institute partnered with Netherlands-based BIPV specialist Asat BV in deploying 10 cm x 10 cm perovskite solar modules built on flexible foil onto a curved composite roof tile. Testing indicates that bending the modules to fit the curved surface has minimal impact on their performance.

Standalone modules reached energy conversion efficiencies of up to 13.8%, while the modules retained an efficiency of 12.4% after installation on the curved roof tile.

The perovksite modules were encapsulated with an experimental roll-to-roll manufacturing platform developed by TNO itself. Roll-to-roll manufacturing – similar to the process used in newspaper printing – enables continuous production of solar cells on long rolls of flexible material. The technique is widely seen as a potential pathway to lower production costs and high-volume manufacturing for emerging thin-film technologies such as perovskites.

More technical details about the solar tile were not disclosed. TNO said it will be commercialized by its spinoff Perovion Technologies, which was launched last month. 

TNO's recent research on perovskite solar cells, includes developing roll-to-roll and spatial atomic layer deposition (SALD) processes for the deposition of functional materials, solar cell layers, and flexible foils.

In July, Solarge, a manufacturer of lightweight silicon PV modules based in the Netherlands, and TNO unveiled a 32 cm x 34 cm lightweight prototype perovskite solar panel.

A month earlier, Japan’s Sekisui Solar Film, part of Sekisui Chemical, the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), which serves the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, and TNO signed a letter of intent in Osaka, Japan to explore collaboration related to flexible perovskite solar PV module technologies.

As pv magazine has reported, Sekisui Solar Film is developing technology for lightweight, flexible perovskite solar module manufacturing using an advanced roll-to-roll process. It is working on a 100 MW plant in Japan for large-scale production, is undertaking field demonstrations, and signed a perovskite solar-related memorandum of understanding with Slovakia.