In its recent report, the US Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) outlined the main technical challenges, commercialization risks and opportunities and the efforts being made to overcome the obstacles standing before the commercialization of perovskite solar cells.
It's important to note that while SETO mentions that most of the development in the solar field in the next few years will rely on silicon and CdTe, it sees potential in nascent technologies like halide perovskites.
When discussing barriers, SETO lists factors like cost, system reliability, durability, efficiency (which is often considered a strength of perovskite PV, but large-area devices will require significant improvement before they are ready for the commercial market). Also, SETO notes that while standardized cell and module form factors have yet to be finalized for perovskite PV, standards will be a crucial prerequisite to scaling the entire industry beyond initial demonstration projects. Another major technical hurdle to commercialization is achieving high production yield, with narrow distributions in module efficiencies.
SETO notes that the ability of perovskite PV technologies to secure investor financing with low interest rates, may be even more significant than the technical challenges to perovskite PV commercialization. Financing will be necessary for scaled manufacturing lines and deployment projects.
These challenges will have to be faced before it can (or if it can) achieve gigawatt-scale deployment. In the meantime, there are different applications that can tolerate issues like higher costs and durability issues, like building integrated PV, military operations, aerospace, and Internet of Things.
