Recent Perovskite News - Page 2

BOE is reportedly preparing to launch large‑scale outdoor field testing of its perovskite PV modules across multiple extreme climate regions in China. According to recent industry reports, the company has commissioned a 200 kW perovskite outdoor demonstration base at its 10.5‑generation TFT‑LCD production park in Hefei, Anhui Province.

The Hefei demonstration facility will host BOE’s rigid, flexible, and tandem perovskite modules alongside reference cadmium telluride (CdTe) and crystalline silicon modules, including back‑contact (BC), TOPCon, and heterojunction (HJT) technologies. The goal is to perform side‑by‑side outdoor validation under real‑world operating conditions, focusing on long‑term stability, energy yield, and degradation behavior.

Guangdong Mellow Energy has announced that its self-developed 30×30 cm² ultra‑flexible perovskite photovoltaic module has achieved a TÜV NORD‑certified power conversion efficiency of 21.79%. The company says this places the device among the most efficient flexible perovskite modules of its size worldwide, and highlights that the module also reaches an industry‑leading power‑to‑mass ratio of 26 W/g, outperforming most mainstream thin‑film PV technologies.

Mellow Energy notes that this combination of high efficiency and extreme lightweight design is aimed specifically at aerospace and satellite applications, where every gram of payload has a direct impact on launch cost and available capacity. In current commercial satellite constellations and future large orbital infrastructure, the power‑to‑mass ratio is a core benchmark for space power systems, as higher power output per unit weight allows operators to install more equipment, extend mission lifetimes and reduce launch expenses.

Researchers from POSTECH, SKKU and UESTC have developed air‑stable tin‑based perovskite p‑type transistors using volatile surface reconstruction by treating CsSnI₃ with potassium acetate, removing defect‑forming tin ions and creating a protective KI layer. The devices show top‑level hole mobility and on/off ratio, remain stable in air and at high temperature, and may be used in future memory and display electronics.

Tin (Sn²⁺) halide perovskites are promising lead‑free materials for future electronics because their bandgaps can be tuned and they conduct charge efficiently, but the tin at the surface is easily oxidized in air. Undercoordinated Sn²⁺ sites tend to oxidize to Sn⁴⁺, causing unwanted self‑doping and defects that block charge flow, so conventional tin‑based perovskite transistors can fail within minutes under ambient conditions. In these devices, unreacted tin ions that never fully joined the crystal remain on the surface and act as starting points for oxidation and degradation. To overcome this, the researchers implemented “volatile surface reconstruction”. 

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Guangxi University and Beijing University of Technology have developed a dual-molecule surface passivation strategy that significantly improves both the efficiency and operational stability of wide-bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells.

Wide-bandgap perovskites, typically incorporating ≥20% bromine in APb(I_1−xBr_x)3, are essential for tandem solar cells but suffer from small grain sizes, high densities of grain boundaries, and interfacial defects. These structural limitations accelerate non-radiative recombination and degradation under heat, light, and moisture, ultimately limiting performance and long-term stability. Despite rapid progress - power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 27% within 15 years - these devices still fall short of the Shockley–Queisser limit by around 4%, largely due to interfacial losses.

The Australian National University (ANU) and partners Jinko Solar, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Melbourne have reported progress towards cost‑effective silicon-perovskite tandem modules on passivating‑contact silicon cells, including monolithic tandem efficiencies up to 34.76% on Jinko’s TOPCon platform and 26.61% on 20 cm² devices processed with scalable blade‑coating. 

This work arises from the ARENA‑funded project “Cost‑effective Si/Perovskite Tandem Modules on Passivating Contact Si Cells” (TRAC005 / PRO‑1930), launched in December 2022 and scheduled to run until April 2028, which targets commercial‑ready monolithic silicon‑perovskite tandem (SPT) technology and significant production capacity by the end of the project.”

Researchers at St. Mary's School-Wuhan and Guizhou Institute of Technology have demonstrated a simple light-management strategy for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by introducing a Zn₂SiO₄ rear light-reflecting layer fabricated via a doctor-blade coating process. The approach targets optical losses in the visible spectrum and enhances device performance without modifying the core device architecture.

The Zn₂SiO₄ layer exhibits strong reflectivity across the 450-780 nm wavelength range, effectively reflecting transmitted photons back into the perovskite absorber. This recycled light increases the probability of photon absorption within the active layer, leading to measurable improvements in device output. External quantum efficiency (EQE) is enhanced across this spectral region, directly translating into an increase in the EQE-integrated short-circuit current density (Jsc) from 16.00 to 16.40 mA cm⁻².

Researchers from Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have set a new efficiency record of 25.5% for a tandem solar cell combining CIGSe (copper indium gallium selenide) with perovskite. The device, slightly larger than 1 cm², surpasses the team’s previous record of 24.6% achieved last year for the same material system.

The new result has been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and has been included in the widely recognized Solar Cell Efficiency Tables, often referred to as the “Green Tables,” which serve as a global benchmark for photovoltaic performance.

Yanhe Technology and Soochow University have signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly build a research and development laboratory dedicated to perovskite - crystalline silicon tandem solar cells. The new joint lab will serve as a core platform for university-enterprise collaborative innovation, targeting key technical bottlenecks across the full industry chain - from fundamental research through engineering, mass production and end‑use applications.

Under the joint construction plan, the lab will focus specifically on perovskite / crystalline silicon tandem solar cells as a “core track,” aiming to develop original, industry‑leading technologies and products while systematically resolving pain points in R&D, production and application. The cooperation will follow an enterprise‑led, university‑supported and two‑way innovation model. Soochow University will concentrate on basic research and theoretical advances to continuously support Yanhe’s technology upgrades, while Yanhe Technology will drive engineering scaling, pilot verification and process maturation of university results, opening a complete pathway from lab‑scale research to market‑ready applications.

South Korea’s Flexell Space has been selected as the lead organization for a large-scale national R&D project focused on low‑cost, high‑efficiency space perovskite tandem solar modules. 

Image by Flexell Space

The three‑year project, funded with a total budget of around KRW 10.7 billion (about US$7 million), aims to develop next‑generation thin‑film tandem devices and validate their performance and reliability in real space environments.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo, RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and Tohoku University have demonstrated a gigantic bulk photovoltaic response in high-quality epitaxial thin films of the lead-free ferroelectric halide perovskite CsGeI₃.

Ferroelectric halide perovskites are attractive because they combine a built‑in electric polarization with strong visible‑light absorption. In such materials, light can generate current through the bulk photovoltaic effect, which does not require a conventional p–n junction. A key part of this effect is the “shift current”, a special kind of photocurrent that comes directly from the quantum‑mechanical motion of electrons when they absorb light. In this work, the team grew high‑quality epitaxial CsGeI₃ thin films using molecular beam epitaxy. The films show clear ferroelectric behavior and allowed the researchers to probe the intrinsic bulk photovoltaic response with minimal influence from defects. Under visible‑light illumination, they found that CsGeI₃ produces an exceptionally large shift current.