perovskite

Japan’s Toshiba has fabricated a perovskite solar cell mini-module with an energy conversion rate of 10.5%, which it claims is now the highest rate that has been reached throughout the world with a multi-cell mini-module.

Mimicking a compound eye of a fly, Stanford University scientists have packed tiny perovskite cells into a hexagon-shaped epoxy resin scaffold, improving the material’s durability when exposed to moisture, heat and mechanical stress in a breakthrough that may open the door to the awaited improvement in perovskite’s operational stability.

In another breakthrough for the material so many solar advocates hope will replace traditional silicon in module production, a group of scientists in China and the United States have produced the first monocrystalline perovskite cell, which could accelerate its acceptance as a silicon replacement.

Belgian research institute Imec has achieved a conversion efficiency of 23.9% on a perovskite/silicon tandem module measuring 4 square centimeters. This efficiency level, according to Imec, represents the first time such a stacked configuration has outperformed a standalone silicon solar cell.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have published research revealing unusual atomic motions in perovskite materials exposed to light. Stanford says the discovery could prove crucial to further increasing the efficiency potential for perovskite solar cells.

Just over a year after Australian cleantech company Dyesol claimed to have achieved efficiency levels of 10 per cent in its perovskite solar cells, US researchers claim to have topped that, with a breakthrough that could also work to fast-track commercialisation of the technology.