This project was a so-called "integrated project" within the framework of the EU's 6th Research Framework Programme. Over the course of four years, 24 international partners from science and industry researched the development and market launch of second-generation solar cells - so-called thin-film cells. Thin-film cells require very little material and energy to manufacture. At the same time, reducing the cost of solar cells was one of the central challenges of modern photovoltaics and was to decide the global competition for this key technology of the future. Together with the bottlenecks in the silicon supply at the time and the continuing high demand, thin-film technology played a pioneering role.

Coordinated by the Hahn-Meitner Institute, universities, research institutes and companies from eleven European countries further developed two promising technology paths for thin-film cells, transferred them to industrial production and positioned corresponding products on the market.

One of these is CI(G)S technology, in which a very thin semiconductor layer made of the elements copper, indium and selenium or sulphur is applied to a substrate (glass, metal or film) instead of silicon to absorb solar radiation. Layers with these elements can utilise considerably more sunlight than silicon with the same layer thickness, so that layer thicknesses of just a few micrometres are sufficient. This means that considerable material and energy savings can be realised in the production of CIS cells, with corresponding cost reductions.

On the other hand, these are so-called micromorph thin-film cells, which combine different absorption spectra as tandem or stacked cells. They are therefore able to utilise a broader spectrum of sunlight and achieve correspondingly higher efficiencies. Another key objective of the ATHLET project was to bring this type of cell, which has already been successfully produced on a laboratory scale, to market maturity.

Together with the University of Northumbria at Newcastle and the Hahn Meitner Institute in Berlin, the IZT has taken on Subproject VI: "Sustainability, Training and Mobility". The IZT's task was not to consider the ecological and socio-economic effects of thin-film technology only when it was introduced to the market, but to examine, evaluate and optimise the sustainability effects as early as the research and development process. With the help of life cycle assessment analyses, the IZT was to create an informational basis for the material and energy flows, which was used by all consortium partners and represented the starting point for the evaluation and optimisation of the sustainability effects. In the further course of the project and the accompanying technology development, the IZT was to support possible market access for thin-film technology through implementation scenarios. To this end, the recorded sustainability effects were combined with existing technology roadmaps and scenarios for PV and bundled into an optimised strategy for introducing thin-film technology to the market.

In addition to the use of resources and energy amortisation, labour market effects as well as production and installation capacities should be key criteria. In addition, the IZT should ensure that gender aspects are taken into account, which is mandatory for such European research projects.