Scientists make 24.3% efficient tandem solar cells in only 10 minutes

The new process could help lower manufacturing costs. Industrial-scale production of perovskite photovoltaics: Researchers develop a scalable process.

Scientists make 24.3% efficient tandem solar cells in only 10 minutes. Researchers in Germany and Spain have developed a fast vacuum coating process capable of producing perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with efficiencies of up to 24.3 percent in just 10 minutes. The solvent-free method was created by scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Valencia. It rapidly deposits uniform perovskite layers at high throughput, even on textured silicon surfaces commonly used in advanced solar cells. Ulrich Paetzold, PhD, a professor at KIT, stated that industrial-scale manufacturing depends not just on achieving high efficiency, but also on whether the production process is fast, robust, as well as scalable. “We were able to demonstrate that an exceptionally fast vacuum process not only produces uniform layers,...