Researchers from the University of Toledo have reported progress that may push the performance of tandem perovskite solar cells to new levels. Working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab and the University of Colorado, Dr. Yanfa Yan, UToledo professor of physics, envisions that the new high efficiency tandem perovskite solar cell will be ready to debut in full-sized solar panels in the consumer market in the near future.

"We are producing higher-efficiency, lower-cost solar cells that show great promise to help solve the world energy crisis," Yan said. "The meaningful work will help protect our planet for our children and future generations. We have a problem consuming most of the fossil energies right now, and our collaborative team is focused on refining our innovative way to clean up the mess."

For the purpose of decarbonizing the energy-mix, which is becoming a priority challenge for European countries among others, European universities, research institutes and industries involved in the development of perovskite technologies have agreed on the creation of a collaborative platform: the EPKI.

This initiative is dedicated to gathering all significant parties working in this field and is pursuing the following objectives:

• Raise the awareness on perovskite based photovoltaics by conveying a common vision through the editing of a common European perovskite whitepaper,
• Support and initiate next generation PV industrial initiatives,
• Facilitate joint-research programs and synergies among universities, institutes and companies.

Parasitic absorption in transparent electrodes is one of the main roadblocks to enabling power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) for perovskite‐based tandem solar cells beyond 30%. To reduce such losses and maximize light coupling, the broadband transparency of such electrodes should be improved, especially at the front of the device.

Erkan Aydin and coworkers from KAUST Photovoltaics Laboratory have recently shown the excellent properties of Zr‐doped indium oxide (IZRO) transparent electrodes for such applications, with improved near‐infrared (NIR) response compared to conventional tin‐doped indium oxide (ITO) electrodes. Optimized IZRO films feature very high electron mobility (up to ≈77 cm2 V−1 s−1), enabling highly infrared transparent films with a very low sheet resistance (≈18 Ω □−1 for annealed 100 nm films). For devices, this translates to a parasitic absorption of only ≈5% for IZRO within the solar spectrum (250–2500 nm range), to be compared with ≈10% for commercial ITO.