Perspectivas do potencial estratégico de novos materiais alternativos ao silício para a produção de células solares fotovoltaicas

Abstract

The Brazilian energy matrix is essentially made up of hydropower renewable energies, a greater diversification of these clean energies through the expansion of studies in the field of photovoltaic solar energy is an important way to achieve environmental sustainability. Solar energy being a renewable energy can be transformed into electricity through solar panels directly from the received solar radiation. Brazil is a country that receives a reasonable amount of solar radiation throughout the year and this technology has advantages such as installation and maintenance with low costs and especially the non-generation of environmental impacts during the operation phase. The photovoltaic market is dominated by silicon technology, but new second and third generation cell technologies are being developed. Thin-film, Organic, Multi-junction and Perovskite film technologies, among others, offer the opportunity to reduce costs, be flexible and have low weight and transparency with the possibility of conquering new niche markets. From this point of view, the overall objective of the research was: "To analyze materials with strategic potential to compete with silicon in the composition of photovoltaic solar cells." Therefore, two interconnected and sequential studies were performed. The first study performed a systematic literature review, which allowed us to recover the main research on the most studied materials. The most promising and alternative silicon materials were grouped into 11 different categories, the main ones being Thin-film cells (A-Si, CdTe, CIGS, GaAs), Multijunction cells (Hybrid, Multijunction, Single-junction), Perovskite cells (PSC), Dye-sensitized cells (DSSC), Organic cells (OPV) and Quantum dot cells (QDSSC). With the main categories of materials selected, a second complementary scientific study was performed to retrieve the information on unprotected patents in Brazil in the PATENTSCOPE database. Finally, using the results of the two studies, it was possible to analyze the names of the inventors, the countries of origin, the dates of deposits, the depositing companies, the title, the summary and the technological classification for possible use of this information for photovoltaic solar use in the Brazil. Thus, it was possible to say that the information obtained for solar photovoltaic technology could be analyzed and the information could be used to expand the knowledge of the technologies that make up photovoltaic solar cells.