| Project Detail |
Integration of photovoltaics into multifunctional surfaces becomes easy and cost-effective
Integrated photovoltaics (IPV) are components intended for buildings, infrastructure or vehicles. IPV products include building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), where the solar panels replace traditional building materials. BIPV products are mainly applied to achieve net zero energy buildings. The EU-funded MC2.0 project will facilitate the widespread adoption of IPV products, particularly in the built environment where demand for solar electricity is high. What’s more, the MC2.0 consortium aims to overcome barriers for large-scale market adoption, for example by demonstrating a cost breakthrough through advanced manufacturing techniques, also known as "mass customisation." The success of the project will have a significant impact on our living environment and facilitate multifunctional use of surfaces in the built environment and in electric vehicles.
In the past 25 years, many integrated photovoltaics (IPV) products have been introduced and demonstrated. Mostly BIPV products, but more recently also IIPV and VIPV products. However, large scale deployment and massive market adoption of these technologies and products have not yet taken place.
We are at the brink of a huge scale-up and capacity build-up of PV in Europe, that will have a large effect on our living environment. Therefore, it is now urgent and essential that IPV products become widely available and affordable. This is important (1) to generate solar electricity where the demand is (in the built environment) and (2) to enable multifunctional use of area and space in the built environment.
Several parties in the MC2.0 consortium have more than 20 years of experience in IPV development and as such have been involved in many earlier projects and studies. We believe that the number one barrier for large scale market uptake of IPV is the high cost. Other - secondary but also important – barriers are immature sector cooperation and certification issues.
The overarching ambition of the MC2.0 project is to demonstrate a cost breakthrough for IPV by means of an advanced manufacturing approach, referred to as “mass customization”. In coherence with this approach, we will contribute to solving the other identified barriers.
To realize this ambition, the MC2.0 consortium brings together experts and companies on materials for PV laminates (including PV cells), on manufacturing of PV laminates, on manufacturing of IPV products and on market and application of IPV products. |
