Flexibility - Page 6

A UNIST research team has developed an electrode that can significantly improve the stability of perovskite solar cells. UNIST announced that its research team developed 'flexible and transparent metal electrode-based perovskite solar cells with a graphene interlayer'.

The team suppressed interdiffusion and degradation using a graphene material with high impermeability, the team said. Team leader professor Hyesung Park commented that the research will greatly help not only solar cells but other perovskite-based flexible photoelectric devices such as LEDs and smart sensors.

Researchers from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics and the South Colombian University in Colombia have developed a flexible perovskite solar cell for indoor applications said to function under illumination of 100-500 lux.

The 100 micrometer-thick device was manufactured using roll-to-roll sputtering with an indium tin-oxide coating on ultra-thin flexible glass with transmittance of more than 80%, sheet resistance of 13 ohms-per-square and bendability surpassing 1,600 bending procedures at 20.5mm curvature.

EU H2020-funded project PeroCUBE aims at developing flexible, lightweight perovskite-based electronics, creating new commercial opportunities for the lighting, energy and telecom industries. Coordinated by the Swiss CSEM, this consortium brings together 14 industrial and academic partners from 10 European countries.

PeroCUBE has two main objectives: producing efficient, simple and low-cost light sources closer to natural light sources and supporting the development of more stable and low-cost solar panels. By combining these promising technologies, PeroCUBE seeks to develop a new generation of Visual Light Communication (VLC) and LiFi (light fidelity) standard, widening the scope for human centric lighting (HCL), data transmission, wearables and IOT applications that do not cause harm to humans nor the environment.

Saule Technologies recently announced a 4.35 Million Euro grant from the Polish National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), to push forward the mass production of flexible perovskite solar modules for IoT applications.

Solar cell powered beacon

Saule Technologies has pioneered the manufacturing of flexible perovskite solar cells. These types of devices offer excellent energy harvesting capabilities, particularly interesting for applications where the presence of direct sunlight is not prevalent. Saule stated that perovskite-based solar cells are the fastest evolving solar technology to date, with their single junction record power conversion efficiency in the lab already achieving 25.2% under one sun condition. However, this performance can be significantly higher when perovskites are exposed to artificial light, which is critical for the IoT solutions.

Researchers from Helmhotlz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), collaborating with teams from University of Cambridge, Eindhoven University of Technology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Salerno University and others, have developed a monolithic "two-terminal" tandem cell made of CIGS and perovskite that achieved a certified efficiency of 24.16%, with a thickness of well below 5 micrometers - which would allow the production of flexible solar modules.

Tandem cells combine two different semiconductors that convert different parts of the light spectrum into electrical energy. Metal-halide perovskite compounds mainly use the visible parts of the spectrum, while CIGS semiconductors convert rather the infrared light. CIGS cells, which consist of copper, indium, gallium and selenium, can be deposited as thin-films with a total thickness of only 3 to 4 micrometers; the perovskite layers are even much thinner at 0.5 micrometers.

This article is an extract from The Perovskite Handbook, 2020 edition, and explains the current market status of Perovskites Solar Panels.

Solar Panels is the most prominent potential perovskite application, as synthetic perovskites are recognized as inexpensive base materials for high-efficiency commercial photovoltaics. Perovskite PVs are constantly undergoing research and improvement, going from just 2% in 2006 to over 23% today, and constantly improving. Experts forecast that the market for perovskite PV will reach $214 million in 2025.

Power efficiency is obviously a key metric for solar power technologies. In this article we'll explain how solar system efficiency is defined and the current power efficiency market status of PSCs.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded nTact with $708,000 project to develop a reliable, reproducible, and cost-effective upscaling of perovskite photovoltaic devices using an industry-proven slot-die coating technique. This process will ultimately be used to produce flexible and rigid, highly efficient perovskite solar cells.

This is the second stage of this Small Business Technology Transfer Project (STTR-II) that has three objectives:

Scientists from Hasselt University, imec, VITO, EnergyVille and international partners within the PERCISTAND consortium have announced that they achieved an energy efficiency of 25% with a thin-film solar cell.

Bart Vermang, coordinator within the PERCISTAND consortium, describes the development of thin-film solar cells as 'Pioneering'. The consortium, which partly consists of the collaborations within EnergyVille and Solliance, has succeeded in achieving a record energy efficiency with thin film solar cells. 'We've achieved an energy efficiency of 25 percent for the first time, which is just as much energy as a traditional solar cell can generate on a day-to-day basis. And we haven't yet reached the upper limit of our thin-film solar cells.'

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have conducted a techno-economic analysis they claim demonstrates the importance of niche markets for bringing cutting-edge PV technologies such as perovskites to commercial maturity.

Higher-value niche markets such as the building-integrated PV (BIPV) segment and self-powered microelectronics devices may offer more room for testing new solar technologies at lower cost, say the authors of the study. The MIT team said customers in such markets are more comfortable paying a higher price for more sophisticated products. 'They'll pay a little more if your product is flexible, or if the module fits into a building envelope,' stated the study.

A research team led by Tan Zhi Kuang from the Department of Chemistry and the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) has developed perovskite-based high-efficiency, near-infrared LEDs that can cover an area of 900 mm² using low-cost solution-processing methods.

Infrared LEDs are generally small point sources, and according to the institute this limits their efficacy if illumination is required in larger areas when in close proximity, such as those found on wearable devices.