So, the team … got efficiencies in the area of 33 to 34 percent. They also sent a sample to a European test lab, which came out with an efficiency of 33.7 percent. The researchers have a few ideas that should boost this to 35 percent, but didn’t attempt them for this paper. For comparison, the maximum efficiency for silicon alone is in the area of 27 percent, so that represents a very significant boost and is one of the highest perovskite/silicon combinations ever reported.
Love this research and I hope solar eventually beats ICE engines for efficiency.
However…
The crystals were reasonably stable when simply exposed to light. But the combination of light and heat caused a more significant decay in performance. The researchers say that “devices maintain ≥90 percent of their initial performance up to 1,000 hours,” but a decay of up to 10 percent in about three months is not ready for commercial deployment. So, still some work to do there.
Even conventional solar panels work better when they are cool. Someone smart figured out that you can pump water through them and then use that hot water in your house. You get hot water while making your solar panels more productive. Of course they are crazy expensive.
I hope solar eventually beats ICE engines for efficiency
I’m not sure your comment makes a lot of sense. The problem with solar isn’t that it’s not as efficient as internal combustion engines, it’s that you can’t generate electricity on-demand. But it’s already a cheaper form of energy than burning fossil fuels in many countries.
Given that the first perovskites studied had lifespans that could be measured in minutes, this is great progress, but the fundamental problem is that as a class of materials they just don’t want to exist outside of an inert atmosphere. Without significant progress in stability and encapsulation materials, they’re more of a research curiosity than a viable real-world PV tech.
We’re reaching the limit for photovoltaics. Really need to pour money into optical rectennas.
Current panel efficiency is at roughly 22%. A 34% efficient panel would increase current solar generation to 133% just by replacing current panels. That’s much easier then building new solar generation plants. This would move the “total energy produced Earth by solar” amount from the current 5.5% to 7.35%
That’s a pretty stunning improvement for a comparably easy lift.
Oh no doubt it’s a massive improvement. It’s just we can see even better numbers and for cheaper once we crack the materials and lithographic constraints of rectenna diode construction. Mass production of those babies would be revolutionary in terms of solar energy. It’d straight up outcompete fossil and nuclear even considering having to build energy storage. Hell it’d be revolutionary even if we make them just for the infrared wavelength.
34% is 155% of 22%, so an even bigger increase!
