Scientists at the Oxford University Physics Department have developed a breakthrough in solar technology that can increase the amount of solar electricity produced without the need for silicon-based solar panels.

The innovation, a new light-absorbing material, is thin and flexible and can be applied to the surface of almost any building or everyday object, such as rucksacks, cars, and mobile phones.

The university stacked multiple light-absorbing layers into one solar cell to harness a wider range of the light spectrum, allowing more power to be generated from the same amount of sunlight.

The material has been independently certified to deliver over 27% energy efficiency, for the first time matching the performance of traditional, single-layer, energy-generating materials.

“During just five years of experimenting with our stacking or multi-junction approach, we have raised power conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 27%, close to the limits of what single-layer photovoltaics can achieve today,” said Shuaifeng Hu, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford University Physics. “We believe that, over time, this approach could enable the photovoltaic devices to achieve far greater efficiencies, exceeding 45%.”

The “ultra-thin” material is only a micron thick, 150 times thinner than a silicon wafer.

“By using new materials that can be applied as a coating, we’ve shown we can replicate and outperform silicon while also gaining flexibility. This is important because it promises more solar power without the need for so many silicon-based panels or specially-built solar farms,” said Junke Wang, Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Postdoc Fellow at Oxford University Physics.

Since 2010, the global average cost of solar energy has fallen by almost 90%. It is nearly a third cheaper than that generated from fossil fuels. Innovations promise additional cost savings as new materials, like thin-film perovskite, reduce the need for silicon panels and purpose-built solar farms.

“The latest innovations in solar materials and techniques demonstrated in our labs could become a platform for a new industry, manufacturing materials to generate solar energy more sustainably and cheaply by using existing buildings, vehicles, and objects,” Henry Snaith, Professor of Renewable Energy at the university, said.

Researchers from Monash University, the University of Oxford, and the City University of Hong Kong recently developed a “self-healing” mechanism for perovskite solar cells. The breakthrough was creating a “living passivation strategy” using a specially designed material called HUBLA (hindered urea/thiocarbamate bond Lewis acid-based material). The material can repair the perovskite layer when exposed to heat and moisture.