One of the most interesting recent innovations is the perovskite solar cell. It's a new type of solar cell that uses a perovskite[1] material. According to Wikipedia, they've been around since 2009, but only recently have they come close to traditional silicon-based solar cells -- and they quickly surpassed them. In some lab settings, it's been reported that, as of 2021, perovskite single-junction (non-tandem) solar cells have achieved efficiencies of 25.7% and some perovskite-only multi-junction cells have reached 29.8% and higher.
=>
=> Wikipedia (Gemipedia): Perovskite solar cells
Welcome back to Futurism, an unfortunately-named solarpunk gemlog. I'm considering changing the name to Reinspired. I wrote a section about why, so let me know how you feel about the new name with the contact information at the bottom of the page.
Side note: when talking about solar panels, the term "perovskite" generally refers to synthetic materials that follow the structure of the actual mineral called perovskite. Therefore, any time I say "perovskite" I'm talking about synthetic perovskite materials, not the actual mineral, unless I use the word "mineral" with it or some other clarifier.
Perovskite solar cells are relatively new, and they're just now being commercialized. Perovskite tandem solar cells and organic solar cells[2] are even newer, and they're in the early stages of commercialization or late stages of R&D. I expect that the future of solar panels are perovskite-based: first perovskite-only (tandem and not) and silicon-perovskite based on use case, then perovskite-organic tandem solar cells (POTSC) after that.
There is concern about the lead content in typical perovskite solar cells, which is why they've been delayed for so long. There has been a lot of effort in reducing the lead content as much as possible, and even replacing it with a different material entirely (usually a tin halide). I expect that the version that sees the most adoption when it's put out will be the non-lead version.
The silicon solar cells in common use today require extremely high temperatures[3], expensive materials[4], and strenuous processes to manufacture. Synthetic perovskites are significantly cheaper to make and use than silicon, which of course makes them quite appealing. As it turns out, they're a lot more efficient than silicon for harnessing the power of the sun, too!
=>
|
A different name for multi-junction solar cells is "tandem" solar cells, reflecting that it's essentially two solar cells blended ("joined") together and working in tandem.
We are able to make multi-junction solar cells with traditional silicon solar cells, but doing so provides diminshing returns with exponential costs. This isn't exactly the case for tandem cells involving perovskites.
The cost does still increase quite a bit when you do multi-junctions, but not as much. Pure perovskite double-junction solar cells have been recorded to reach 31.9% efficiency, similar triple-junctions to 33.1%, and a perovskite-silicon triple-junction has reached 35.3%. The challenge is making that combination cost-effective to produce.
Wikipedia adds:
These multi-junction perovskite solar cells, in addition to being available for cost-effective synthesis, also maintain high PCE under varying weather extremes – making them utilizable worldwide.
It looks like the most research and effort is going into perovskite-silicon double-junction solar cells -- which I expect will be the most common type of tandem cell, or possibly perovskite-perovskite. Or both.
The solar power breakthrough we've been hoping for is already here. Now we've really just got to wait for it to hit mass production....
Today I randomly came up with the name Reinspired, which I thought was a perfect fit for Futurism. I've been toying with changing its name for a while, because of how others use the word Futurism and how that might be seen as me endorsing it.
I believe Reinspired is a good fit for this gemlog because it evokes the things I set out to write for Futurism: optimistic pieces that inspire positive social and technological change. This is what all solarpunk literature aims for! When all inspiration seems lost, you can get Reinspired here.
What do you think?
=> Email me: me@blakes.dev (or DeltaChat) | Chat with me: me@blakes.dev (XMPP)
Pro tip: if you're on Matrix, you can contact me with: @_bifrost_me=40blakes.dev:aria-net.org (this is me@blakes.dev) You can use my Bridge Tool on the bloatweb to get more like these: https://blakes.dev/bridges
=> ⬅️ Back to Futurism index This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).Proxy Information
text/gemini