In November 2023, a buzzy solar technology broke yet another world record for efficiency. The previous record had existed for only about five months—and it likely won''t be long before it too is obsolete. This astonishing acceleration in efficiency gains comes from a special breed of next-generation solar technology: perovskite tandem solar cells. These cells layer the traditional silicon with materials that share a unique crystal structure.
In the decade that scientists have been toying with perovskite solar technology, it has continued to best its own efficiency records, which measure how much of the sunlight that hits the cell is converted into electricity. Perovskites absorb different wavelengths of light from those absorbed by silicon cells, which account for 95% of the solar market today. When silicon and perovskites work together in tandem solar cells, they can utilize more of the solar spectrum, producing more electricity per cell.
Technical efficiency levels for silicon-based cells top out below 30%, while perovskite-only cells have reached experimental efficiencies of around 26%. But perovskite tandem cells have already exceeded 33% efficiency in the lab. That is the technology''s tantalizing promise: if deployed on a significant scale, perovskite tandem cells could produce more electricity than the legacy solar cells at a lower cost.
But perovskites have stumbled when it comes to actual deployment. Silicon solar cells can last for decades. Few perovskite tandem panels have even been tested outside.
The electrochemical makeup of perovskites means they''re sensitive to sucking up water and degrading in heat, though researchers have been working to create better barriers around panels and shifting to more stable perovskite compounds.
In May, UK-based Oxford PV said it had reached an efficiency of 28.6% for a commercial-size perovskite tandem cell, which is significantly larger than those used to test the materials in the lab, and it plans to deliver its first panels and ramp up manufacturing in 2024. Other companies could unveil products later this decade.
Researchers, farmers, and global agricultural institutions are embracing long-neglected crops that promise better nutrition and more resilience to the changing climate.
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Pure CuInSe2 solar cells suffer from strong interfacial carrier recombination. Here, the authors introduce a wide U-shaped double Ga grading with a minimum bandgap of 1.01 eV and achieve certified device efficiency of 20.26%, making it highly suitable for tandem solar cell applications.
The use of harmful solvents to fabricate stable devices hampers the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors introduce a biorenewable solvent system and precursor-phase engineering to realize stable formamidinium lead triiodide-based solar cells.
Thermoanaerobacter kivui-drived CO2 reductase (TkHDCR) requires hydrogen as substrate, which can lead to safety issue. Here, the authors engineered TkHDCR into an electro-responsive carbon dioxide reductase to harvest electrons from either an external mediator or a polarized electroactive surface.
The sustainable fabrication of perovskite solar cells is critical. Duan et al. present a more environmentally friendly solvent system to process wide-bandgap perovskite films that can also be used for industrial-scale manufacturing in ambient air.
The interconversion dynamics between charge transfer state charges and separated charges remains an unresolved issue. Here, the authors spectrally resolve those charges and report a kinetic model to reveal the charge generation, separation, and recombination mechanism in α6T:C60 systems.
Perovskite solar cells can be damaged when partially shaded, owing to currents flowing in reverse. Two research groups have now increased the breakdown voltage of the perovskite devices (the tolerance against this reverse bias degradation), one by using multilayer charge-selective contact stacks on the cathode side, and the other by using relatively thick, dense electrodes on the anode side.
Flexible organic photovoltaics and energy storage systems have profound implications for future wearable electronics. Here, the authors discuss the transformative potential and challenges associated with the integrative design of these systems for energy harvesting.
The highest power conversion efficiencies for silicon heterojunction solar cells have been achieved on devices based on n-type doped silicon wafers, yet these wafers are usually more expensive than p-type ones. Now, researchers reduce charge recombination in the bulk of p-type silicon, demonstrating comparable efficiency to devices based on n-type silicon.
Interfacial engineering is key to ensure the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells. Research now shows that chiral molecules can both improve the mechanical stability of the interfaces and afford passivation of defects at the perovskite surface, making solar cells more tolerant to thermal cycling stress.
High-efficiency perovskite solar cells suffer from limited operational stability. Research now shows that perovskitoid-based interlayers with strong metal halide octahedral connectivity and both out-of-plane and in-plane crystal orientations address this issue.
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