Researchers in Germany have set a new solar record that could help pave the way for lighter, more versatile panels, Interesting Engineering reported.
Their tandem cell, just over 0.16 square inches (1 square centimeter), converts 25.5% of sunlight into electricity, a milestone that could matter outside the lab.
What happened?
At Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and Humboldt University of Berlin, researchers produced a certified tandem solar cell that converts 25.5% of sunlight into electricity over an area of 0.168 square inches (1.081 square centimeters). That beats the team's own 24.6% record from last year.
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Ultra-tiny lab cells can post impressive numbers, but the widely followed Solar Cell Efficiency Tables won't list a technology tested on anything smaller than 1 square centimeter. Clearing that bar makes this result more meaningful, since the design is now closer to industry scale-up.
Why does it matter?
Instead of using a single light-absorbing material, the device splits the work between two thin films. The perovskite top layer captures the blue, high-energy part of sunlight, while the lower CIGS layer, made of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium, soaks up the weaker red and infrared wavelengths that pass through.
This tandem design can pull more electricity from the same amount of sunshine, a goal for an industry working to lower costs and generate more solar power from rooftops, buildings, and vehicles. Other teams are chasing the same target: a U.S. company recently reported a perovskite-silicon module topping 30% efficiency in a demonstration unit. Higher efficiency can also mean fewer panels for the same amount of power.
The CIGS and perovskite films are thin, light, and bendable, so they could one day wrap around curved surfaces, sit inside window glass, or cover a car roof, as Interesting Engineering detailed. Rigid panels can't easily go in any of those spots.
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What's being done?
The researchers have already pushed past the record cell. Partnering with Berlin's University of Applied Sciences, they built a 0.35-square-inch (2.25-square-centimeter) mini-module from the same material stack, and it held 19.7% efficiency, according to Interesting Engineering.
On the record-setting device itself, Dr. Guillermo Farias Basulto adjusted the band gap of the CIGS base so it soaks up light better, while chemist Wuai Zhang tested coatings meant to stop electricity from leaking inside the cell.
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"The physics embedded in our current cell architecture suggests that 25.5 percent is merely a stepping stone, given that our in-house testing of similar architectures has already reached efficiencies of 27.5%," Farias Basulto noted.
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