The solar industry consumed 11% of the world’s silver production in 2022[1] – a proportion that is predicted to increase significantly as solar continues to dominate new electricity generation installations. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) estimate that silver currently accounts for around 10% of the cost of a photovoltaic module, contributing over $6 to a typical 400W panel.[2] By 2050, over 85% of the current global silver reserves could be consumed by the solar industry, with some estimates as high as 113%[3]; this will inevitably drive prices up further. The industry is, therefore, urgently seeking alternative lower-cost materials.

GraphEnergyTech Ltd. has been founded by acknowledged leaders in advanced solar cell design, graphene manufacturing, and technology commercialisation. The advisory board includes Michael Grätzel (the inventor of the dye sensitized solar cell and one of the world’s most cited academics), Andrea Ferrari (the founder and director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre), and Michael Irwin (the founder of Cubic PV).

The company is developing a high-conductivity graphene material that can replace the silver electrodes in a solar cell. This provides a significant cost saving to the mainstream silicon solar manufacturers and is an enabling technology for the latest generation high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, which suffer degradation due to migration of the silver into the active layers of the device. The electrodes have conductivities 5x higher than those made from competing graphene suppliers and an environmental footprint significantly lower than metal electrodes.

The team have access to a broad patent portfolio covering high-efficiency solar cell design, graphene manufacturing, and the use of graphene in a solar cell. There is significant potential for further IP generation given the strength of the team and ongoing relationships with research labs in Cambridge Graphene Center (UK), EPFL (CH), the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST, SA) and the Hellenic Mediterranean University (Crete, GR).

References:
[1] B. Hallam, M. Kim, Y. Zhang, L. Wang, A. Lennon, P. Verlinden, P. P. Altermatt, P. R. Dias, Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 2022, DOI 10.1002/PIP.3661.
[2] B. L. Smith, M. Woodhouse, K. A. W. Horowitz, T. J. Silverman, J. Zuboy, R. M. Margolis, 2020.
[3] U. S. G. Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022, DOI 10.3133/MCS2022.