Perovskite

Denisa Sakova, Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Economy, has signed an agreement with Japanese plastics manufacturer Sekisui Chemical, which is developing flexible photovoltaic panels. Sakova says the aim is to explore the possibility of producing the panels in Slovakia.

Pixel Voltaic, a spinoff of University of Porto, has launched a laser system to hermetically seal glass-glass and glass-steel perovskite PV modules up to 30 cm x 30 cm. The company’s technology roadmap is to increase capacity to accommodate larger device areas of up to 1 m2, and to modify the process to operate within a roll-to-roll line.

CubicPV has halted its plans to build a US solar silicon wafer factory, as it has shifted its focus to producing perovskite tandem modules.

Tandem PV has secured capital to advance its four-terminal perovskite-silicon tandem module technology and move closer to first manufacturing. The company claims its products maintain 80% of the initial performance after 25 years.

Aerosolar, a spinoff from the Queen Mary University of London, has created a novel aerosol method that it claims boosts efficiency and stability of metal halide perovskite solar cells.

Researchers at the Jülich Research Center in Germany have used novel photoluminescence measurements to analyze the recombination of charge carriers in perovskite solar cells. They have found that the loss of charge carriers in perovskite devices works differently from other types of PV cells.

Researchers from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) investigated the commercial prospects of perovskite-silicon tandem PV technologies and found that, in order to bring them closer to market maturity, their cost should not exceed by 30% that of crystalline silicon counterparts. Their roadmap stresses the importance of reducing perovskite degradation and improving product stability.

Chinese solar perovskite specialist Mellow Energy and the Jinan University developed a new manufacturing process for perovskite solar modules that enables the formation of a protective layer at the interface between the perovskite absorber and the electron transport layer. This prevents the effusion of volatile components from the perovksite film.

Indoor solar cell developer, Perovskia Solar, is setting up a factory in Switzerland that may reportedly print 1 million of its custom-designed perovskite devices annually. It targets the market for self-powering consumer electronics and internet-of-things devices, such as fire-alarms, fitness trackers, and sensors.

Italian module manufacturer FuturaSun has big expansion plans in China, with the first phase of a 15 GW silicon cell fab due online in Huai’an in the first quarter of 2024, in addition to 1 GW of module production in Taizhou. Erik Eikelboom, technical adviser to FuturaSun, offers a closer look at the project.