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Solar panel achieves world record thanks to ‘miracle material’

Posted on by darion

A new world record has been set for the efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity, which scientists say will be a huge boost for renewable energy.

Scientists at Longi, the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer, achieved a power conversion efficiency of 34.6% using a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell, beating the previous record by 0.7%.

The new record is also more than 7 percent more efficient than the record for the standard silicon solar cell found in most commercial solar panels.

Photovoltaic panels at a power plant in La Colle des Mees, Alpes de Haute Provence, southeastern France, April 17, 2019.
Photovoltaic panels at a power plant in La Colle des Mees, Alpes de Haute Provence, southeastern France, April 17, 2019. (Getty Images)

Perovskite has been hailed as a “wonder material” for its potential to vastly improve everything from batteries to telecommunications and renewable energy.

As current silicon solar panels reach their physical limits, researchers are now looking for next-generation tandem cells to better harness solar energy.

Perovskite-silicon cells have a theoretical efficiency limit of 43 percent, well above the 29 percent limit of standard silicon cells.

The latest record follows a series of breakthroughs by China-based Longi, which has broken the world record for solar cell efficiency 16 times over the past three years.

The record was announced at the 17th International Solar Photovoltaics and Smart Energy Conference (SNEC) in Shanghai, China, along with a new “landmark” agreement to transform global energy through collaboration with Saudi energy company ACWA Power.

The company said in a statement that it set the new record by “optimizing the thin-film deposition process of the electron transport layer, developing and applying high-performance defect passivation materials, and designing high-quality interfacial passivation structures.”

No further details were provided, although Longi is one of several companies currently in the process of commercializing the technology.

In the UK, Oxford PV hopes to fulfill its first customer orders for perovskite-based solar cells this year by opening a production facility in Germany.