Longi announced this week that it has achieved a power conversion efficiency of 33.9% for a tandem solar cell made of perovskite and silicon.
This groundbreaking achievement has been confirmed by NREL and is now a world record for this type of solar cell. The previous record was held by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, with a 33.7% efficiency for a similar device.
According to pv magazine, perovskite-silicon tandem cells have a theoretical efficiency of 43%. This makes them a highly viable alternative to conventional mono-junction silicon cells. Most current commercial solar cells have efficiencies between 17% and 20%.
In June, Longi announced a perovskite-silicon solar cell with a 33.5% efficiency. This efficiency rating was certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI). It represented a significant increase from Longi’s previous efficiency rating of 31.8%, announced just a month earlier in May.
Since April 2021, Longi has broken the world record for perovskite-silicon solar cell efficiency 15 times.
Perovskite refers to a group of chemical compounds, rather than a specific element. Perovskite offers great potential for improving solar cell technology.
Unlike silicon cells, perovskite cells do not require extremely hot temperatures to be assembled. This makes perovskite cells much cheaper to produce than conventional silicon-only cells.
Canadian chemistry professor Jianbo Gao believes that perovskite cells could soon cost less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour to manufacture. This is over 90% cheaper than silicon-only cells.
Perovskite solar cells have yet to become widespread due to their rapid degradation rate. However, scientists are making progress in overcoming this issue.
Earlier this year, a group of Swiss researchers developed stable perovskite cells. They accomplished this breakthrough through a technique called “facet engineering,” which involves adding special ligand molecules to the cells.
Image Source: Global Times, https://shorturl.at/bEV19
