Perovskite film can increase the efficiency of solar panels by 50%

Scientists from Stanford found that the application of a thin translucent film of crystalline mineral perovskite can seriously increase the efficiency of energy efficiency of solar cells, while not greatly increasing their cost.

Co-author of the study, Michael McGee, says: “It has long been working to obtain more efficient and less expensive solar panels. Now the market is dominated by silicon solar panels, but their efficiency has been stuck at around 25% and has not changed in the past 15 years [ refer to industrial designs available to customers - note by translation. ] Creating low-cost tandems based on such panels is a desirable goal. You simply place one photocell on top of the other, and as a result, the efficiency is greater than each of them individually. From a commercial point of view, it is logical to use silicon photocells as a substrate. And there was no candidate for the upper part until the perovskite material appeared. ”


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Colin Bailey, one of the authors of the study, says: “Our goal is to bring the idea to already existing silicon facilities around the world. The use of tandem photocells does not require billions in investments in new technologies. It is enough to make a silicon module and apply a perovskite layer on top, which does not require any special expenses. ”

Innovation, which was achieved by scientists, is the production technology of translucent perovskite. This layer absorbs only high-energy photons from the visible spectrum, passing the rest, while the silicon substrate works mainly due to low-energy photons and the infrared spectrum.

Having applied perovskite with this method, which has a conversion efficiency of 12.7% per layer of an inexpensive silicon panel with an efficiency of 11.4%, they obtained a panel with an efficiency of 17%. The scientists plan to achieve a tandem panel with an efficiency of 25%, equal to the current top panels, but with a much lower cost of production. And in the future, after 10 years, to achieve the effectiveness of panels in 30%.



Perovskite is a rare mineral found in the Ural mountains by the German geologist Gustav Rose and named after the Russian statesman Count L. A. Perovsky, who was a collector of minerals. The crystalline mineral is simple and inexpensive to make in the laboratory. In 2009, the first samples of perovskites were obtained, which had a photoelectric effect, and at the moment photocells with an efficiency up to 20% are obtained from these crystals.