Perovskite solar cells: Researchers achieve new efficiency record

Perovskite is becoming increasingly important in solar cells. A new tandem solar cell has now achieved a new record level of efficiency. The backgrounds.

Energy from the sun is and will remain an important source of energy for our future. Politicians are therefore discussing new areas for solar systems. The Ministry of Economy would like to increasingly on agricultural land set. The environment and agriculture ministries are against it.

However, the optimal solution may be to make better use of existing space. Because if we generate a larger amount of energy per square meter, the area consumption will decrease in the long term. A possible solution is now from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) in Saudi Arabia.

Solar cells: Perovskite tandem cell achieves a record value of 33.2 percent

Many experts see perovskite solar cells as a future alternative to silicon models. So far, the efficiency of perovskite systems has increased from around four percent (15 years ago) to 25 percent in 2021. However, even proven systems made of silicon still achieve this value.

So what happens when you combine both materials? This is what the scientists at Kaust tried out. This resulted in a completely new solar cell. With normal lighting, this achieved an efficiency of 33.2 percent and is therefore above the value of previous systems – because their value is between 20 and 30 percent.

Silicon and perovskite cover a wide spectrum

This works mainly because the perovskite components can better utilize high-energy photons. Silicon, on the other hand, can handle low-energy photons better.

Consequently, a mixture of both materials can cover the entire spectrum much more effectively. The previous record for a solar cell was 32.5 percent and was thus surpassed. The results are already official and have been included in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) table.

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