Perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cells have the potential to produce more energy at significantly lower costs than conventional silicon PV cells. Efforts are underway to speed up their commercialization by addressing issues such as limited stability.

French researchers have developed PV modules with an area of 11.6 square centimeters for indoor applications. They said the achieved efficiency level marks a world record for a flexible perovskite device larger than 10 square centimeters.

A new US Department of Energy report describes the challenges of commercializing perovskite technology for the solar energy sector.

An Indian research group has built a perovskite cell that has a metal contact based on copper, instead of expensive gold. The device showed almost the same efficiency as a cell developed with gold metallization but its stability was much lower. In order to overcome this issue, the scientists suggest using a metal contact made of a thin layer of gold and a thicker, overlying copper layer.

U.S. thin-film manufacturer First Solar and Bill Gates-owned Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) are among the investors in the new company, which is called CubicPV and is expected to develop multi-junction perovskite solar cells with efficiencies of around 30%.

International researchers have placed a low-dimensional metal-halide perovskite capping layer on top of a metal-halide perovskite film to provide hermetically sealed encapsulation and enhanced photocarrier properties. The cell has a short-circuit current density of 23.5 mA.cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 1.15 V, and a fill factor of 0.779.

Scientists in India have simulated a perovskite cell based on methylammonium tin iodide which they claim may achieve a short circuit current density of 25.97 mA per square centimeter, an open-circuit voltage of 1.203 V, and a fill factor of 87.79%. The cell is composed of a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate, a titanium oxide layer, a methylammonium tin iodide perovskite film, a copper oxide hole transport layer (HTL), and a layer made of gold (Au).

Scientists have set a new efficiency record for a single-junction perovskite solar cell at 25.6%. The cell additionally showed operational stability for 450 hours, and intense electroluminescence with external quantum efficiencies of more than 10%.

A numercal study by researchers at India’s Chitkara University has shown enhanced charge extraction in metal-perovskite-metal back-contact solar cell structure through electrostatic doping. The proposed design yielded a 59.4% improvement in power conversion efficiency over previously reported structures.

Scientists in India modeled the performance of tin-based perovskite (methylammonium tin triiodide) finding that with careful optimizations the material could achieve efficiencies beyond 28%.