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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>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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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>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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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>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gourav Mishra</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gourav,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav.</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="89" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gourav</a> is a staff reporter with Mercom India with over six years of experience in various roles with NewsX, The New Indian Express, IBTimes India, and U.S., Republic, and Analytics India Magazine. Gourav has a Master&#8217;s in journalism from Jain University, Bengaluru. <a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav Mishra</a></div>
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Australia Awards AU$29.5 Million to University for Solar Technology Research

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