Global Courant
Chinese scientists have successfully boosted the efficiency of a new generation of solar cells to 28% in a race against foreign rivals result in December 2018 and have since pushed that level up to 33.2% in April this year.
Not waiting for solar perfection, some Chinese companies, including a company founded by China’s leading researcher, have already started producing perovskite and silicon tandem solar cells (PSC).
This so-called third generation solar cell could convert 50-75% more sunlight into electricity than the traditional silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell.
The product is also 95% cheaper than the silicon solar cell, as the main raw material is methylammonium lead iodide, making it a potentially good option for countries looking to switch to solar energy to meet their carbon neutrality targets.
Tan Hairen, a professor at Nanjing University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and his team announced their PSC technology “breakthroughs” in a article published by Nature, a London-based weekly science journal, on June 8.
According to the article, Tan’s team has achieved a return of 28%meaning that 28 out of 100 units of incident sunlight can be converted to electricity, on a research-sized PSC measuring 0.49 square centimeters.
In January 2022, the team achieved 26.4%. At that time too included an efficiency of 24.2% on a larger PSC (1.04 sq cm) and 21.7% on a mini module size (20.25 sq cm). The larger the size of a solar cell, the lower the efficiency that can be achieved.
In 2017, when this photo was taken, postdoctoral researcher Tan Hairen and his colleagues in Professor Ted Sargent’s lab at the University of Toronto removed a major barrier to the production of low-cost perovskite solar cells. Now, six years later, Tan is in charge of a lab in Nanjing and has started his own company to commercialize the third generation of cells. Photo: University of Toronto / Kevin Soobrian
Tan had said in an earlier interview that his team had taken into account several factors during the investigation, including production and material costs.
He also said his Renshine Solar company started making PSC modules in February with an efficiency rating of 18%. He said such a product is commercially viable because it has an output equivalent to that of a traditional silicon solar cell at 20% efficiency.
For comparison: the most efficient silicon solar panels at the moment available in the markets have an efficiency of 22.8%. Most panels are only 15 to 20% efficient.
In May last year, the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) created a silicon solar cell with a record 39.5% efficiency, although it is not yet commercially available.
In terms of research-sized PSCs, many scientists in the world have already joined the 30% efficiency club. The United Kingdom’s Oxford PV had set world records at 28% in December 2018 and 29.52% in December 2020.
A team from Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) in Germany achieved 29.8% in November 2021 and 32.5% last December. On April 16, researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) reached Saudi Arabia 33.2%which remains the world record to date.
De Duong, a researcher at the Australian National University (ANU), who recorded an efficiency of 30.3% in February this year, said it is important to cross the 30% mark as that is considered a threshold for the commercialization of tandem technology.
Build it and they will come
The ANU cells have not gone into production. Duong said mass production of PSCs will be practical in 2026.
Some firms, such as Renshine, prefer to go first commercialization – even if on a very small scale – as early as possible to secure a first mover advantage.
Last month, Oxford PV set a world record of 28.6% efficiency on a commercial PSC (258.15 square cams) known as M4.
Seoul-based solar manufacturer Hanwha Qcells also partnered with the HZB announced last month that it would invest US$100 million to build a pilot tandem cell production line in South Korea’s Jincheon. The factory will begin mass production by 2026. Without disclosing size, Qcells said its PSC has an efficiency of 29.3%.
Qcells has already invested in a four-year perovskite research project in Europe. Image: Qcells
Duan Xiaohu, an analyst at East Asia Qianhai Securities Co Ltd, published a study report in March said some Chinese solar panel manufacturers, including GDL Power, MicroQuanta and Utmolight, have started making PSCs, even though their products may have short lifespans and low efficiency.
“Methylammonium lead iodide, the most common raw material of PSCs, has a low stability, which can result in a short lifetime of the solar cells,” says Duan in the report. “In addition, there are usually more defects on larger PSCs, which means it’s difficult to produce a large solar cell while maintaining high efficiency.”
Last July, MicroQuanta delivered a batch 5,000 units of its PSCs to a power plant in Zhejiang for a sea trial. Media reports said the company achieved a return of 21.8% on a PSC measuring 19.35 square centimeters.
Read: China’s fastest-to-date quantum computer still far behind the US
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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