Perovskite on Moon Regolith (PeroMoon) Towards Scalable Solar Cell Fabrication on the Moon

• Applicants: Dr. Felix Lang; Professor Dr.-Ing. Enrico Stoll
• Subject Area: Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials ; Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering ; Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Glass, Ceramics and Derived Composites
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 575599533

Establishing a permanent base on the Moon, as planned by NASA, ESA, and DLR, offers significant research opportunities while serving as a stepping stone for a sustainable human presence in space. However, we currently lack suitable technologies for energy provision that are scalable, cost-efficient, and lightweight enough to facilitate transport to the Moon. Commercially available space solar cells achieve efficiencies of ~30%, yet their power-to-weight ratios remain below 1 kW/kg. This leads to high launch weights and, consequently, immense costs. This issue is particularly concerning for larger installations, given the current transportation cost of €1,000,000 per kilogram to the Moon. With this proposal, we aim to lay the groundwork for fabricating solar cells directly on the Moon in the future. This could power the first permanent Moon bases as well as a Moon village or Moon city. By combining in-situ resource utilization of the abundant regolith on the Moon with small quantities of halide perovskite materials brought from Earth, our project, PeroMoon, will enable the creation of "Perovskite-based Moon solar cells" directly on the lunar surface, thereby eliminating the need for costly transportation. Our vision includes fabricating transparent "Moonglass" from raw regolith, followed by the scalable deposition of ultrathin halide perovskite solar cells on top. This approach offers power-to-launched mass ratios above 40 kW/kg. Leveraging expertise in in-situ resource utilization from the Technical University of Berlin and knowledge of halide perovskite deposition, solar cell characterization and optimization from the University of Potsdam’s ROSI-Freigeist Junior Group, our project will focus on four key areas of fundamental research: i) the interplay of regolith composition on glass formation, glass transparency and glass radiation resistance, ii) importance of regolith purification, iii) the scalable deposition of halide perovskites, all utilizing processes that are adapted to the high-vacuum, low-gravity and extreme radiation/temperature environments on the Moon. For halide perovskite deposition and solar cell fabrication, this project will develop and investigate novel continuous flash sublimation techniques that utilize the high vacuum present on the Moon, eliminating the need for solvents used in traditional solution processing or the delicate processing windows of other co-evaporation techniques. Together with simplified solar cell architectures, our Moon-Ready deposition techniques will form the foundation for scalable and reliable solar cell manufacturing on the Moon. The insights gained will not only lead to innovative in-situ resource utilization and perovskite deposition techniques for the Moon but may inspire simplified solar cell fabrication on earth as well. Lastly, we aim to design and model a miniaturized demonstrator, which we hope to launch to the Moon in future follow-up projects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants