Oxford Photovoltaics announced that it was working with scientists at the new Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) innovation lab to further the optimization of its perovskite cell materials for silicon heterojunction solar cell technology.

The new partnership with HZB aims at furthering commercialization efforts with greater leverage of HZB’s silicon cell material knowledge and specifically heterojunction cells. “Working with HZB to understand solar cell manufacturers’ silicon cells, will allow Oxford PV’s perovskite on silicon tandem formation to be fully optimized, to ensure the most efficient tandem solar cell, and the easy transfer of our technology into our commercial partner’s industrial processes", commented Chris Case, Chief Technology Officer, at Oxford PV. “Oxford PV is now in the final stage of commercializing its perovskite photovoltaic solution, which has the potential to enable efficiency gains that will transform the economics of silicon photovoltaic technology globally.”

Researchers at the University of Groningen are working on a special type of solar cell that is made of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites. The team has been focusing on a material in which hot electrons retain their high energy levels for much longer, which might make it possible to use more of their energy to obtain a higher voltage.

Most hybrid-perovskite solar cells contain lead, which is toxic. The research group recently published a paper describing 9% efficiency in a hybrid-perovskite solar cell containing tin instead of lead. "When we studied this material further, we observed something strange", the team said. The results showed that the hot electrons produced in the tin-based solar cells took about a thousand times longer than usual to dissipate their excess energy.