Researchers at Australia National University (ANU) have developed a novel manufacturing technique for perovskite solar cells, that may boost their efficiency. The ANU team sees this as a breakthrough that 'significantly improved' the performance of perovskite solar cells, which can combine with conventional silicon solar cells to produce more efficient solar electricity.
The ANU team designed an approach that requires a small amount of the element indium to be added to one of the cell's layers, which is claimed to result in a 25% increase in its power output. With perovskite better at converting visible light into electricity, and silicon more efficient in the infrared part of the spectrum, a combination of both is a promising path going forward.
"The prospect of adding a few additional processing steps at the end of a silicon cell production line to make perovskite cells is very exciting and could boost solar efficiency from 25% to 30%," according to the team. "By combining these two cells, the perovskite cell and the silicon cell, we are able to make much better use of the solar energy and achieve higher efficiencies than either cell on its own."