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KAUST Leads The Way With Unprecedented Solar Efficiency | |
| Sumita Pawar |
Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have produced a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 33.2%, the highest tandem device efficiency in the world so far.
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Tandem solar cells combining silicon and perovskite sub-cells are widely regarded as a promising, high-performing, and viable alternative to conventional crystalline solar cells, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is leading the charge.
According to the report, researchers in the KAUST Photovoltaics Laboratory (KPV-Lab) of the KAUST Solar Centre have produced a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 33.2%, the highest tandem device efficiency in the world to date, surpassing that of Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin’s (HZB) record of 32.5% PCE. The tandem device was certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI) and listed at the top of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Best Research-Cell Efficiency Chart.
Led by Dr. Stefaan De Wolf, professor of material science and engineering and interim associate director of the KAUST Solar Centre, the team has steadily been perfecting the perovskite/silicon tandem cell concept since 2016—ddeveloping new materials, methods, and device structures and tackling fundamental challenges, such as how to uniformly cover the micrometre-sized pyramidal surface of silicon cells with perovskite material.
The innovation is a significant breakthrough in the field of solar energy at a time when market predictions estimate the tandem perovskite and silicon technologies will comprise more than $10 billion of the global photovoltaic market share by 2032.
"This new record is the highest PCE of any two-junction solar cell under non-concentrated light, attesting to the tremendous promise of perovskite/silicon tandems to deliver ultra-high performance photovoltaic modules, which is critical to rapidly achieving renewable energy goals towards combating climate change," De Wolf said.
The team is currently exploring scalable methods to produce industrial-scale perovskite/silicon tandem cells with areas exceeding 240 square centimetres, as well as strategies to obtain highly stable tandem devices that will pass the critical industrial stability protocols.