Highly efficient perovskite-based multijunction solar cells and modules

With solar panels costs and prices falling rapidly, the major capital cost is nowadays related to the balance-of-system (BOS), which includes inverters, cables, mechanical supports and other area-related costs. Therefore, the photovoltaics (PV) industry has shifted focus from the panel’s costs themselves to the need for higher power conversion efficiencies in order to reduce the cost per watt peak (Wp) installed. Moreover, there is an increasing number of applications with limited surfaces, such as building integrated photovoltaics, solar cars, drones... where the efficiency of the panels becomes the most important parameter. However, the mainstream silicon technology has almost reached its theoretical limits and the most promising solution to overcome this limit is to stack different solar cells technologies (tandem cells) one on top of the other to use the solar spectrum in a more efficient way. In this regard, perovskites have shown to be interesting low-cost candidates for tandem solar cells due to their tunable absorption characteristics and high-power conversion efficiency. As the research on the topic has just started, the objectives of this research are to gain fundamental understanding of the limits that hinder the commercialization for the promising perovskite-based tandem solar cell technology and to overcome them.