For the first time, researchers have developed a solar cell that has passed the 30% efficiency barrier. The team of researchers from various universities and institutes in the Netherlands achieved this fate by combining silicon solar cells with perovskite. 

 

Perovskite has been hailed for its properties and the role it could in advancing solar technology, with some referring to it as a “miracle material.” Traditionally, silicon-based solar cells offer an efficiency of about 22%. With this new development, researchers said that this achievement will be vital in reducing fossil fuel use.

 

“This type of solar cell features a highly transparent back contact that allows over 93% of the near-infrared light to reach the bottom device,” said Dr. Mehrdad Najafi from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). “This performance was achieved by optimizing all layers of the semi-transparent perovskite solar cells using advanced optical and electrical simulations as a guide for the experimental work in the lab.”

 

Several researchers across the world are already examining other potential uses of perovskite. It is expected to be at the center stage of future technologies, ranging from ultra-high-speed communications to renewable energy production.

 

The researchers behind the recent findings say that they hope the technology can be commercialized to achieve widespread rollout. Professor Gianluca Coletti, program manager of Tandem PV, said that now it be possible to push the efficiency even more. 

 

“Once combined with the scalability expertise and knowledge gathered in the past years to bring material and processes to a large area, we can focus with our industrial partners to bring this technology efficiencies beyond 30% into mass production,” said Coletti. (inhabitat via Yahoo!)