Recent reports claim that South Korea's Hyundai auto group has teamed up with a research team at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) to develop new perovskite solar cells that can charge vehicles while they are under the sun.
Hyundai Motor already released solar roofs with silicon solar panels, but their acceptance has been slow without improvements in weight and efficiency, as silicon solar cells are quite heavy and have technical limitations in improving efficiency. In a recent ceremony, the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) opened a joint laboratory with Hyundai to develop high-efficiency, large-area perovskite-silicon tandem cells and apply them to solar roofs. The joint laboratory will operate for three years until May 2025.
"Mobility solar cells should be light and efficient per unit area," Seok Sang-il, a UNIST professor of energy and chemical engineering, said in a statement, promising to produce perovskite-silicon tandem cells with "the world's highest efficiency." He did not specify on the purpose of new cells to be developed with Hyundai.
