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					</table><p>Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (<a href="https://www.nrel.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NREL</a>) have proposed enhancing cell and module efficiency to record levels, scale manufacturing, address reliability, and durability issues, and figure out the design of hybrid tandem solar modules to better commercialize them.</p>
<p>Tandem cells, which combine two or more junctions, are recognized for their potential to achieve much higher efficiencies—over 40% under ideal conditions—compared to single-junction cells. Despite this, the commercial scalability of these cells continues to be hindered by the need for improved material properties, better integration techniques, and solving the durability and reliability issues.</p>
<p>In a recently published study in the journal <em>Joule</em>, the researchers have outlined a pathway by reviewing the current state of photovoltaic (PV) technologies and proposed a roadmap for overcoming the challenges. Through this, the team was able to effectively map the fundamental aspects of the cells and also identify the technical hurdles that needed to be navigated to improve the commercial viability of the tandem cells.</p>
<p>As per the researchers, most solar modules currently in use depend on a single junction, which can only absorb a fraction of the solar spectrum, limiting their efficiency. Tandem solar cells, when stacked together, hold the potential to reach higher efficiencies.</p>
<p>Tandem cells also come with their own challenges. ‘For single-junction PV materials, modules are made by interconnecting individual cells laterally in series. For tandems, there are multiple options to interconnect the cells, which provides another layer of complexity to the design of tandem modules,” said co-author Emily Warren, a staff scientist in the High-Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics group at NREL.</p>
<p>The roadmap they charted focuses on combining two or more different PV technologies — hybrid tandems — to provide maximum efficiency. These are further divided into top cells and bottom cells.</p>
<p>The researchers have also found that only three single-junction PV technologies were successfully scaled up to at least a gigawatt production.</p>
<p>Inroads have been made by solar cells from copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe). CIGS is suitable for a bottom cell and CdTe as a top.</p>
<p>However, the commercialization trajectories between silicon and thin-film cells made of CIGS and CdTe inform the challenges that must be overcome to establish a gigawatt-scale tandem technology. Silicon PV benefitted from a steady influx of investments by the semiconductor community, resulting in shared knowledge and standardized processes.</p>
<p>For CIGS and CdTe, companies have guarded their processes and deposition techniques as they attempt to make headway against silicon PV.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-65754 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1.jpg" alt="Cell level configurations" width="936" height="748" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1.jpg 936w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1-300x240.jpg 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1-768x614.jpg 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1-650x519.jpg 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1-624x499.jpg 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Picture1-600x479.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 936px) 100vw, 936px" /></p>
<p>For the top cell, the roadmap also vouches for the potential of other materials such as Gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium indium phosphide (GaInP)- both of which are known for their highest efficiency in single-junction devices. However, they are expensive, and the researchers at NREL were keen to search for cheaper manufacturing methods.</p>
<p>“Metal halide perovskites provide high enough efficiencies as a top cell and are also cost-effective enough to incorporate that the tandem would have much higher efficiencies than the single-junction cells of either technology,” said Kirstin Alberi, the lead author of Joule.</p>
<p>For the bottom cell, silicon is an obvious choice that is currently dominating the solar industry. The researchers claim that a tandem cell consisting of these top and bottom cells currently holds the record for efficiency. Further, this can be an important driver for lowering the total system cost by reducing the area of the system and the associated balance of system costs.</p>
<p>With these benefits, the study has placed tandem cells on the roadmap of PV manufacturers and has predicted that the cells will reach 2% of the market share by 2030.</p>
<p>“Existing consortia have proven to be immensely helpful in the development and commercialization of single-junction PV technologies because they can help in information sharing, advocating for cross-cutting research that will help the field as a whole, and focusing larger sets of stakeholders to work together to solve problems that impact the entire field,” said Alberi.</p>
<p>The authors have sought to enable researchers and manufacturers to collaborate and address important aspects of tandem design, reliability, and scaling to facilitate progress in mass commercialization.</p>
<p>Last month, researchers from the National University of Singapore <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/record-efficiency-tandem-solar-cell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a record energy conversion efficiency of 27.1% in a triple-junction tandem solar cell that they developed.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, scientists from the University of Michigan also <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/bulky-molecules-perovskite-solar-last-longer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that adding bulky additives can improve the stability of perovskite solar cells and make them last longer.</p>


NREL’s Roadmap to Make Tandem Solar Cells Commercially Viable


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					</table><p>Researchers at the National University of Singapore (<a href="https://nus.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NUS</a>) have attained a record efficiency of 24.35% in an inverted-structure perovskite solar cell which marks the first time such a high efficiency has been achieved in a perovskite solar cell with a 1 cm2 active area.</p>
<p>The notable success can be primarily attributed to the incorporation of an inventive charge-transporting material within the cells.</p>
<p>The team said the achievement sets a new benchmark for the efficiency of perovskite solar cells and offers promising prospects for cheaper, more efficient, and durable solar energy solutions.</p>
<p><strong>Closing the Efficiency Gap</strong></p>
<p>Led by Assistant Professor Hou Yi, a team of researchers from NUS focused on bridging the efficiency gap and unlocking the full potential of larger-sized perovskite solar cell devices.</p>
<p>The achievement was made possible by successfully incorporating an undisclosed novel interface material into perovskite solar cells, which enabled the cells to achieve higher efficiency than the normal-structured perovskite cells.</p>
<p>Researchers said this interface material possesses optical, electrical, and chemical properties that synergistically enhance the efficiency and longevity of perovskite solar cells.</p>
<p>The introduction of this material paved the way for significant improvements in performance and durability, making perovskite solar cells more commercially viable.</p>
<p>To ensure the long-term viability of perovskite solar cells, the team is actively working on improving their stability. Perovskite materials are sensitive to moisture and can degrade over time.</p>
<p>Developing a customized aging methodology is a key focus to bringing this technology from outside the lab, with the goal of achieving 25 years of operational stability.</p>
<p>Additionally, the researchers are working on scaling the solar cells to modules by expanding their dimensions and demonstrating their effectiveness on a larger scale.</p>
<p>In a similar research, scientists from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/efficiency-perovskite-silicon-tandem-solar-cells" target="_blank" rel="noopener">combined</a> perovskite top cells on industrially compatible, two-sided, textured silicon bottom cells and developed a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 33.2%.</p>
<p>Experts from North Carolina State University said in an experiment that <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/channeling-ions-pathways-boosts-perovskites" target="_blank" rel="noopener">channeling</a> ions into defined pathways in perovskite materials improves perovskite solar cells’ stability and operational performance.</p>


Researchers Develop Novel Perovskite Solar Cells with 24.35% Efficiency


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					</table><p>Researchers at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EPFL</a>) and <a href="https://www.skku.edu/eng/index.do" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sungkyunkwan University</a> in South Korea have identified the cause behind the degradation of perovskite solar cells and developed a technique to improve its stability.</p>
<p>Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) utilize low-cost materials and are efficient. Further, they can surpass traditional silicon solar cells and potentially revolutionize clean energy.</p>
<p>But PSCs&#8217; response to external stimuli such as heat or moisture negatively impacts stability.</p>
<p>The researchers said their new method brings us closer to the widespread adoption of these cost-effective and efficient solar cells.</p>
<p><strong>&#8216;Facet engineering&#8217; to improve stability </strong></p>
<p>The team looked at two specific crystal facets or the crystal&#8217;s flat surface, characterized by a particular arrangement of atoms.</p>
<p>The arrangement of atoms on these facets affects the crystal&#8217;s properties and behavior, such as its stability and response to external stimuli like moisture or heat.</p>
<p>The researchers looked at two facets of perovskite crystals &#8212; represented as (100) and (111) facets.</p>
<p>The (100) facet is a plane that is perpendicular to a crystal&#8217;s c-axis, with its atoms arranged in a repeating pattern in the form of a square grid, and in the (111) facet, the atoms are arranged in a triangular grid.</p>
<p>The researchers found that the (100) facet is particularly prone to degradation as it can quickly transition to an unstable, inactive phase when exposed to moisture. In contrast, the (111) facet was found to be much more stable and resistant to degradation.</p>
<p>The researchers also identified the cause of the degradation. They found that it was due to a strong bond between the perovskite and water molecules, which caused the transition from the stable to unstable phase.</p>
<p>The team used their findings to develop a &#8220;facet engineering strategy,&#8221; in which they used a special substance called ligand molecules to grow the more stable (111) facet.</p>
<p>This resulted in perovskite films that were exceptionally stable and resistant to moisture and heat.</p>
<p>The researchers said their study represents an important step forward in developing PSCs, as stability is a major hurdle to their commercialization.</p>
<p>A team of researchers from EPFL in December 2022, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/swiss-researchers-say-raised-perovskite-cells-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a method that improves both power conversion efficiency and stability of solar cells based on pure iodide and mixed-halide perovskites.</p>
<p>Earlier in the month, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/iit-roorkee-claim-17-efficiency-perovskite-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they had successfully developed a prototype of a low-cost, high-quality perovskite solar cell that achieved a stable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.05%.</p>


Researchers Improve Perovskite Solar Cell’s Resistance to Degradation


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					</table><p>The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (<a href="https://arena.gov.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ARENA</a>) has awarded AU$29.5 million (~$19.5 million) to the University of New South Wales’ (<a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UNSW</a>) School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) for research in solar technologies.</p>
<p>Researchers at SPREE will use the funding across nine projects to study the streams of cells and modules, the balance of the system, and operation and maintenance mechanisms that are targeted to better the solar cells and their stability along with improved energy efficiencies.</p>
<p>The extensive research will help researchers reduce the levelized cost of solar photovoltaics (PV) and improve the efficiencies of cells and solar modules.</p>
<p>ARENA has awarded UNSW a total of AU$41.5 million (~$28 million) to conduct studies and experiments that will support commercialization activities primarily aimed at reducing the cost of solar.</p>
<p>The funding includes an AU$3.7 million (~$2.4 million) grant for the Rear-Junction p-type PERC/ TOPCON Hybrid Solar Cell project.</p>
<p>By combining two solar technologies conceived at UNSW, the project aims to lower the costs of commercial solar cells by improving their performance through conducting experiments.</p>
<p>The second major component of the funding is worth AU$4.8 million (~$3.2 million) for a project that improvises on a decade of singlet fission technique which is a photophysical process that could help researchers exceed the limit of 30% efficiency while maintaining low manufacturing cost.</p>
<p>Further, a grant of AU$3.7 million (~$2.4 million) has been provided to study the optimal O&amp;M strategy and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE)-modeling for ground-mounted PV. The project aims to significantly improve solar power measurement and financial prediction for optimal performance.</p>
<p>A project to assess the silver-lean screen printing for sustainable low-cost industrial PV manufacturing at a terawatt scale will receive a grant of AU$3.3 million (~$2.2 million). The project is aimed at addressing the amount of silver consumption in the production of terawatt-scale solar, which cannot be solved by end-of-life management as the sector grows.</p>
<p>The other five projects for which grants have been sanctioned include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>AU$3.1 million (~$2 million) for a project on efficient and stable chalcogenide-si tandem cells: integrating commercialized PV technologies</li>
<li>AU$2.8 million (~$1.83 million) for daytime inspection solutions for advanced operation and maintenance of solar farms</li>
<li>AU$2.7 million (~$1.8 million) for Industrial high-throughput inspection methods for high-efficiency multijunction solar cells</li>
<li>AU$2.5 million (~$1.68 million) for a project on the balance of system, machine learning applications for utility-scale PV</li>
<li>AU$2.4 million (~$1.6 million) for low-cost and sustainable PV systems for the terawatt scale project</li>
</ul>
<p>UNSW Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research &amp; Enterprise, Nicholas Fisk said, “These awards announced today will further enable our researchers to help solve the world&#8217;s shifting and dynamic energy needs as we move post-haste to a sustainable energy paradigm.”</p>
<p>Recently, ARENA <a href="https://mercomindia.com/australia-funds-research-silicon-perovskite-tandem-tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">awarded</a> AU$2.78 million (~$1.9 million) in funding to the University of Sydney which has partnered with Australian solar technology company SunDrive to research and accelerate the commercialization of silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells.</p>
<p>Last October, engineers from UNSW <a href="https://mercomindia.com/unsw-engineers-claim-diesel-can-run-hydrogen-fuel-mix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a dual-fuel injection system that allows a diesel engine to operate on a Hydrogen-Diesel hybrid fuel with 90% hydrogen in the mix.</p>


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