The manufacturing cost of thin film solar cells and modules can be significantly reduced through the replacement of vacuum deposition steps by solution-based chemical routes. In the case of kesterite PV technologies, use of solution-based processes for the preparation of the device absorbers has demonstrated the possibility to achieve device efficiencies similar to those obtained with vacuum-based processes that are used for the industrial implementation of chalcogenide technologies. Kesterites are Cu2Zn,Sn(S,Se)4 compounds that are receiving an increasing interest for the development of PV devices free of critical raw materials (CRM), which are strongly relevant for a sustainable mass-deployment of the proposed applications. Kesterite based technologies benefit also from a high level of technological compatibility with technologies that are already at industrial production scale, as CIGS. In this case, relevant challenges to achieve a full exploitation of the cost reduction potential of these technologies are related to: i) the use of processes scalable to industrial production scale; and ii) avoiding the use of highly toxic or hazardous reagents as hydrazine. This gives a strong interest to printing based processes that are compatible with very high throughput processes. Between them, ink-jet printing processes have an additional advantage related to the possibility for the definition of spatially resolved processes, which provides with a higher degree of device design flexibility.

Nowadays, Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) has acquired a great interest within the possible applications for thin film photovoltaic devices. It is for this reason that it is vitally important to develop technologies and processes compatible with their integration on substrates alternative to glass, as ceramic based architectural substrates.

This work is focused on the analysis of the manufacturing cost reduction of thin film solar cells and modules by replacing vacuum process steps involved on the precursor preparation by in-air screen printing based processes on ceramics substrates. Solution-based in conjunction of inkjet technology were used for the preparation of the PV active layers on molybdenum coated vitro-ceramic substrates made from recovered material in order to demostrate the viability of these techlogogies for the preparation of more ecofriendly and sustainable opto-electronic devices for BIPV applicationa. With this in mind, promising results were obtanained on cell device prototypes getting around 75% of efficientcy on ceramic substrate comparing with the average value on soda-lime reference substrate, and their scalability for the developmnet of medium size module prototypes has been investigated.

With this approach, the aim is add value to non-vacuum technologies for their future transition for the industrial production of sustainable cost efficient BIPV elements and systems.