Perovskite Solar Cells Are Leading the Efficiency Explosion
Since solar cells were first introduced, researchers have committed untold numbers of hours toward finding new and innovative ways of making them more efficient, more affordable, and longer lasting. Recently, a team of KAUST researchers took a large step in the right direction when they invented homogeneous and defect-free crystals that could dramatically revolutionize the performance of perovskite solar cells.
Better yet, the tremendous increase in performance comes with inexpensive and simple device fabrication, making these solar cells even more commercially appealing.
According to Osman Baker, one of the researchers who led the study, "Perovskite solar cells are the fastest developing type of photovoltaic technology, with power-conversion efficiencies rising from 3.8 percent in 2009 to 24.2 percent in 2019 for single-junction devices."
Perovskite Solar Cells May Be the Future of Solar
The difference maker in these new cells is the perovskite thin film. The hybrid lead-based film acts as a light-harvesting layer within the devices thanks to its exceptional optical and transport properties. The perovskite film combines a methylammonium cation with several halides, which presents a narrow and tunable optical bandgap, one that is very close to the theoretical value required to reach the maximum conversion efficiency for a single-junction solar cell.
As a result, perovskite solar cells are in a position to become solar cell of choice over silicon-based materials. In fact, the only thing stopping this from happening is the fact that perovskite solar cells feature thin polycrystalline films that tend to be highly disordered and defective, thus preventing them from achieving optimal performance.
However, Bakr and his co-lead researcher Omar Mohammed, are addressing this issue by incorporating high-aspect-ratio, single-crystal films of methylammonium lead-triiodide perovskites, which compared to polycrystalline displays a substantially lower defect density and much higher charge-carrier diffusion lengths. Featuring a thickness of 20 micrometers, the crystals used in the new solar cells enabled a maximum power-conversion efficiency of 21.09 percent, the highest ever performance to date for perovskite single-crystal solar cells.
"We reasoned that these single crystals offer a chance for perovskite solar-cell technology to overcome these limitations and get as close as possible to the theoretical efficiency limit," Mohammed says.
What It Means for Solar Installers
With such a recorded increase in performance and the promise of cheaper solar cells, the obvious benefit to solar installers is the fact that marketing and selling perovskite solar cells will be easier. Consumers have two main concerns when it comes to going solar – cost and efficiency. This new development has the potential to lower equipment costs and deliver superior performance, two key factors for gaining ground in the commercial sector.
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