About the project
TRANSPIRE is a 3-year project funded by the European Union through the European Innovation Council (EIC Transition), under Grant Agreement No. 101291137.
TRANSPIRE aims to accelerate Europe’s transition to clean, secure and affordable energy by taking next-generation perovskite photovoltaics from the laboratory to industrial readiness. Starting from imec’s IP-protected bifacial perovskite platform, the project develops and validates two 900 cm² module products — a bifacial single-junction module and a four-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem — and designs the European pilot line that would manufacture them.
The project combines high efficiency, proven reliability, low cost and minimised environmental impact (low-carbon processing, recyclability and circularity), and prepares a European spin-off to carry the technology to market — supporting the Net Zero Industry Act and Europe’s energy sovereignty.
TRL-4 → 6/7
Maturity
36 months
2026–2029
€2.49M
EU contribution
Coordinator
Why perovskite, why Europe, why now
In recent years, metal-halide perovskite photovoltaics has attracted intense interest for its high power-conversion efficiency at low manufacturing cost. East Asia — especially China — and North America are rapidly ramping toward mass production. Europe must move with urgency to build its own perovskite manufacturing base.
TRANSPIRE focuses on large-area, stable perovskite modules made with high-manufacturability processes. Efficiency targets are ≥22% for the 900 cm² bifacial single-junction module and ≥32% for the four-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem. Key activities include depositing high-quality perovskite and contact layers over large areas with industrially viable techniques, and qualifying modules through indoor and outdoor field tests aligned with IEC standards.
Semi-transparent modules feed both tandem and agrivoltaic applications, and the project explores a 10 MW pilot-line design scaling toward gigawatt production capacity in Europe.
The challenges we tackle
Lab-to-module gap
Most published perovskite results use tiny laboratory cells (0.05–0.1 cm²) and non-scalable processes such as spin-coating — far from a 900 cm² module.
Long-term stability
Stability has improved markedly, but mostly indoors; reliable outdoor field data over years remains scarce and is essential for a bankable product.
Efficiency at scale
A significant efficiency gap persists between small cells and large-area modules (>800 cm²); closing it is central to TRANSPIRE.
Environmental impact
Limited work exists on environmental-impact analysis, lead management and capture, recyclability and circularity — which TRANSPIRE addresses by design.
Led by imec
By concentrating the full technology development, reliability testing, manufacturing design and exploitation within one organisation, TRANSPIRE moves quickly and coherently from laboratory results to a European pilot-line concept and spin-off
Coordinator & Sole Partner
Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum
Thin Film Photovoltaics group · EnergyVille 2, Thor Park, 3600 Genk, Belgium
- 12+ years of perovskite PV R&D
- Large-area modules among the field’s best
- Patent-protected bifacial platform
- Full lab-to-fab capability under one roof
Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101291137 (TRANSPIRE). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.