Researchers at Pusan National University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) in South Korea have tackled perovskite solar cells' stability issues by designing a graphene-based encapsulation technique.

The team introduced a highly flexible and stable graphene encapsulant by adopting the dry transfer method based on a roll-based process.

Researchers at Swansea University, Imperial College London and the University of Oxford have launched a project to drive next-generation solar technology into new applications. The team has been awarded a £6 million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant to advance organic and perovskite solar cells into applications that current solar technologies are not suitable for.

The promise of such next-gen PV could make it suitable for new applications that will be critical to advances such as:

• 5G, which requires ultra-lightweight sources of power for pseudo-satellites and high altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• The Internet of Things, for which sensors and computing devices are increasingly embedded into everyday objects
• Zero-carbon buildings and vehicles, which could use their roofs, walls and windows to generate power.