Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition key component in battery pre pilot line
Kalpana Systems' research partner Holst Centre opened a pre-pilot line for next-gen batteries. In this production line spatial ALD is a key component.
The municipality of Rotterdam has granted Kalpana Systems a subsidy for the scaling of their spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology for the flexible PV market. With the Smart Energy Systems program, the municipality of Rotterdam is supporting companies with smart innovations that can accelerate the energy transition and contribute to the development of clean technologies in the region.
Kalpana Systems is one of six companies selected for the subsidy program of 2024, based on their contribution to the municipality’s targets on circularity, energy efficiency, a healthy living environment and employment in the Rotterdam area. The subsidy enables Kalpana Systems to speed up the development of their spatial ALD technology to meet the demands of the solar industry on production speed and uptime. Accelerating the commercialization of the technology for this market will create a lot of job opportunities in the area, where skilled employees will be needed to develop, build and service the machines.
Thin barrier layers are crucial for the protection of perovskite and other types of flexible solar cells against moisture and oxygen from the environment. Barrier foils currently available in the market are too expensive, driving up the cost of flexible solar technology and hampering the use on large scale. With spatial ALD, thin layers are deposited with atomic precision, ensuring very high quality, uniformity and efficiency. This also makes it possible to deposit multiple layers of a perovskite solar cell in a roll-2-roll production line. The use of Kalpana Systems’ equipment will result in a small environmental footprint and reduced cost per coated area, as it operates at low temperatures and at atmospheric pressure, with a very high utilization of materials. The unique helical web design ensures high throughput and uptime, making it the only spatial ALD system that can meet the industry requirements on speed and quality.
By lowering the cost of flexible solar cells , Kalpana Systems enables the application of the technology on large surface areas currently not accessible with conventional PV technologies. This contributes to the ambition of the municipality of Rotterdam around energy efficiency and to provide 300.000 households with solar energy by 2030.
The press release can be found here.
More information on the Smart Energy Systems program can be found here: Smart Energy Systems | Ondernemen010
