Cheap perovskite tandem solar cell breaks new world record at 30% efficiency
The schematic structure of the tandem solar cell stack in 3D. Credit: Eike Koehnen/HZB.
A crystal known to science for more than a century has only in recent years become recognized for its use in harvesting solar power. Since the first successful usage of perovskite in solar cells in 2009, the advances in the field have grown exponentially. In just a few years of development, rated efficiency in the lab for perovskite solar cells soared from 3.8% to nearly 20%. Now, scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have paired perovskite with silicon in a hybrid solar cell that harvested photons with an impressive 29.15% efficiency a new world record that may propel the industry to new heights.