Perovskite process boosts solar cell efficiency and lowers fabrication costs

Scientists in Japan have developed a perovskite process that lowers manufacturing costs and increases the efficiency of solar cells.

Prof Yabing Qi and his team at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in collaboration with Prof Shengzhong Liu from Shaanxi Normal University, China, developed the cells using the materials and compounds that mimic the crystalline structure of perovskite, which is a naturally occurring mineral. They describe their technique in Nature Communications.

Prof Qi from the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at OIST said solar cell technologies need to fulfil three conditions to be worth commercialising, namely their conversion rate of sunlight into electricity must be high, they must be inexpensive to produce, and they must have a long lifespan.