A team of researchers at the French National Solar Energy Institute (INES) at the country's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has announced achieving 18% power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar modules.
They were able to achieve this level on an active surface area of 10 cm2 under illumination of 1 STC sun, using a coating step carried out in air followed by a gas quenching conversion step to form the desired perovskite material. This material was developed without methyl ammonium comprising multi-cations and a mix of halogens.
The researchers state that the technique is compatible with integration on heterojunction silicon solar cells for tandem architecture developed within the CEA-INES.
While this efficiency level on a small surface area is still far from commercial application, the CEA-INES team said that the 'scientific community must meet several challenges to demonstrate PSCs of large sizes compatible with industry, in order to ensure a bright future for their industrialization'.