Japanese electronics giant Panasonic has reported the production of a lightweight 30_cmX30_cm perovskite solar module with an efficiency of 16.01%. The result was achieved in a research project by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

The device has an area of 802cm² and thickness of 2mm. The manufacturer claims it improved module performance through an inkjet coating method and a reduction in weight by using thin glass substrates.

Scientists from Japan’s Gifu University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have identified a chalcogenide perovskite material with light absorption attributes strong enough to offer the potential for a theoretical maximum conversion efficiency of 38.7% in a silicon perovskite tandem solar cell.

The material – BaZrTiS₃ – has a light absorption coefficient exceeding 10⁵cm^-1, the highest of all solar cell materials including chalcogenide perovskites such as SrZrS₃, BaHfS₃ and SrHfS₃, the scientists claim.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will allocate up to USD$125.5 million in financing for research and development (R&D) projects in the solar field. The research will target reducing the cost of solar technology, which in turn will enhance the competitiveness of the domestic photovoltaic (PV) production and improve the grid reliability.

Among other projects, the DOE funds will see USD$15 million go to 8-12 projects that aim to prolong the lifespan of PV systems and cut hardware costs for plants using traditional silicon solar cells, as well as thin-film, tandem and perovskite cells.

Panasonic Corporation has achieved an energy conversion efficiency of 16.09% for a perovskite solar module (Aperture area 802 cm²: 30 cm long x 30 cm wide x 2 mm thick) by developing lightweight technology using a glass substrate and a large-area coating method based on inkjet printing.

This was carried out as part of the project of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), which is working on the "Development of Technologies to Reduce Power Generation Costs for High-Performance and High-Reliability Photovoltaic Power Generation" to promote the widespread adoption of solar power generation.

An Empa team led by Frank Nüesch, Head of Empa's Functional Polymers Department, has been working in recent years on new manufacturing processes for perovskite solar cells in order to produce them not only faster but also cheaper. To this end, the researchers collaborated with Solaronix, a company based in western Switzerland, as part of a project of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). Together they produced a functional perovskite cell on a laboratory scale with a surface area of 10x10cm.

For the production of this novel perovskite cell, the so-called slot-die process is used. Here, the material layer is applied to a substrate of glass and then structured by removing excess material with a laser. "With the new coating process, we can not only coat faster, but also determine the thickness of the layers more flexibly," says Nüesch. In the future, the slot-die process will make it possible to coat meter-long webs relatively easily and quickly. The coating speed is then also the central element in a possible industrialization of perovskite cell production.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have conducted a techno-economic analysis they claim demonstrates the importance of niche markets for bringing cutting-edge PV technologies such as perovskites to commercial maturity.

Higher-value niche markets such as the building-integrated PV (BIPV) segment and self-powered microelectronics devices may offer more room for testing new solar technologies at lower cost, say the authors of the study. The MIT team said customers in such markets are more comfortable paying a higher price for more sophisticated products. “They’ll pay a little more if your product is flexible, or if the module fits into a building envelope,” stated the study.