Some interesting news in the realm of solar panel efficiency:
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-beat-another-solar-cell-efficiency-world-record
- "Perovskite is the up and coming new challenger, which scientists think could eventually eclipse silicon in terms of usefulness."
Monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with >29% efficiency by enhanced hole extraction
- "Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells must stabilize a perovskite
material with a wide bandgap and also maintain efficient charge carrier
transport. Al-Ashouri et al. stabilized a perovskite with a
1.68–electron volt bandgap with a self-assembled monolayer that acted as
an efficient hole-selective contact that minimizes nonradiative carrier
recombination. In air without encapsulation, a tandem silicon cell
retained 95% of its initial power conversion efficiency of 29% after 300
hours of operation."
- "Tandem solar cells that pair silicon with a metal halide perovskite are a
promising option for surpassing the single-cell efficiency limit. We
report a monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem with a certified power
conversion efficiency of 29.15%. The perovskite absorber, with a bandgap
of 1.68 electron volts, remained phase-stable under illumination
through a combination of fast hole extraction and minimized nonradiative
recombination at the hole-selective interface. These features were made
possible by a self-assembled, methyl-substituted carbazole monolayer as
the hole-selective layer in the perovskite cell. The accelerated hole
extraction was linked to a low ideality factor of 1.26 and
single-junction fill factors of up to 84%, while enabling a tandem
open-circuit voltage of as high as 1.92 volts. In air, without
encapsulation, a tandem retained 95% of its initial efficiency after 300
hours of operation."
- Science 11 Dec 2020: Vol. 370, Issue 6522, pp. 1300-1309, DOI: 10.1126/science.abd4016
