Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a flexible perovskite solar cell that reaches an efficiency of 21.7%, a peak conversion efficiency of 26% and could be manufactured using a low cost roll-to-roll process.

Many previous attempts to merge two perovskite materials have failed because the materials degrade one another’s electronic performance. This design was achieved using a new way of combining two perovskite solar cell materials – each tuned to absorb a different wavelength or color of sunlight – into one “graded bandgap” solar cell that absorbs nearly the entire spectrum of visible light.

Researchers at Australia National University (ANU) have developed a novel manufacturing technique for perovskite solar cells, that may boost their efficiency. The ANU team sees this as a breakthrough that “significantly improved” the performance of perovskite solar cells, which can combine with conventional silicon solar cells to produce more efficient solar electricity.

The ANU team designed an approach that requires a small amount of the element indium to be added to one of the cell's layers, which is claimed to result in a 25% increase in its power output. With perovskite better at converting visible light into electricity, and silicon more efficient in the infrared part of the spectrum, a combination of both is a promising path going forward.

Oxford PV, a spin-out from the University of Oxford that aims to commercialize a new technology for thin-film solar cells, has recently acquired the former thin-film production site of Bosch Solar in Germany, to establish a fab with pilot-scale capacity for perovskite wafers.

The plan is to ramp up Oxford PV’s perovskite technology to industry-standard wafer size. Oxford's CEO stated that the facility was identified because of its existing first-class facilities and the ready availability of a local, experienced, highly skilled workforce. The Brandenburg team will work closely alongside the existing operation in Oxford.