A project from Oklahoma State University was selected to receive a $750,000 grant from NASA.
The grant will go toward efforts in exploring a fully Vacuum Thermal Evaporation (VTE)-processed halide perovskite solar cell using only solid precursors for developing a simple solar panel manufacturing process suitable for space.
It was reported that on May 24, at the 16th (2023) International Solar Photovoltaic and Smart Energy (Shanghai) Exhibition (SNEC), LONGi Green Energy Technology announced its “STAR Innovative Ecological Cooperation Platform” and its newly achieved efficiency of 31.8% for perovskite/crystalline silicon tandem solar cells based on commercial CZ silicon wafers.
The German Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) reportedly certified LONGi's conversion efficiency of 31.8% for perovskite/crystalline silicon tandem solar cells based on commercial CZ silicon wafers. This was said to be the highest internationally certified conversion efficiency based on the superposition of perovskite on commercial CZ silicon wafers.
Italian solar company, FuturaSun, has acquired Solertix, a start-up specialized in perovskite solar cell research and upscaling for industrial applications.
This acquisition represents a major investment for FuturaSun in scientific research and in the development of innovative technologies. Alessandro Barin, CEO of FuturaSun, emphasizes the strategic importance of this step, stating, “Perovskite is the future of high-efficiency photovoltaics, and in this specific R&D segment, we couldn’t afford not to be key players, working alongside those who are dedicated to scientific research at the highest academic levels.”
Less than two months after achieving a new world record for tandem solar cell efficiency of 33.2%, KAUST researchers have announced an improvement to this number by reaching a power conversion efficiency of 33.7% for a perovskite-silicon solar cell.
The result was reportedly certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI).
A Department of Energy (DoE) project, lead by University of Michigan's Prof. Zetian Mi, is using perovskites to develop high efficiency, low cost, and ultrastable production of green hydrogen fuels directly from sunlight and water.
The new method to achieve clean hydrogen through solar water splitting offers a promising path to achieving net-zero carbon emissions. The University of Michigan research team aims to stabilize perovskite-based solar cells to produce highly-efficient, low-cost, ultrastable green hydrogen fuel.
Researchers from China's Fudan University, Central South University, East China Normal University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Suzhou University of Science and Technology, along with Canada's University of Victoria and Austria's University of Vienna, have proposed a novel strategy to achieve efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs) through introducing bis-diazirine molecules to immobilize the organic cations by covalent bonds.
The resulting PSCs exhibited a high certified efficiency of over 24% with long operational stability of over 1,000 hours. The scientists believe that this strategy also possesses great potential in other perovskite-based optoelectronic devices.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a world-leading developer of EV batteries, is spearheading a new initiative to develop solar cells.
According to reports, CATL is researching the development of perovskite cells, among the most promising methods to drive new improvements in solar panel performance. It also recently struck an agreement with JA Solar Technology Co., China’s fourth-biggest module maker, to cooperate on scientific innovations, marketing and storage.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Toledo and Perotech Energy have found that bathocuproine, which is often used as an electron-transport material, can improve power-conversion efficiency and stability when added to the hole-transport layer.
The chelation product of bathocuproine with lead ions is insoluble in the perovskite ink and also decreases the formation of amorphous regions by reducing the amount of trapped dimethyl sulfoxide solvent. Minimodules with an aperture area of 26.9 square centimeters had a certified efficiency of 21.8% and light-soaking stability exceeding 2000 hours.
US space agency NASA has revealed the results of an experiment it conducted to assess the performance and durability of perovskite solar cells on the International Space Station. The surprising discovery was that perovskite solar cells tested in space exhibit less degradation than reference devices tested on Earth. The specific factors in the space environment that contributed to the superior performance of the perovskite absorber film currently remain unknown.
NASA tested a perovskite absorber over a 10-month period in order to assess its resistance to vacuum, extreme temperatures, radiation, and light stressors simultaneously.
Researchers from the University of Louisville and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported high-performance, inverted f-PSCs from the direct deposition of yttrium-doped SnO2 nanoparticles functionalized with acetate on top of perovskite as an ink in anhydrous ethanol via blade coating.
Yttrium doping reportedly improved device performance by improving the charge extraction with a decreased series resistance leading to improvements in the open-circuit voltage and fill factor.