Tandem PV, a California-based photovoltaic technology company specializing in ultra-high-efficiency tandem metal-halide perovskite solar panels, has announced closing the initial $6 million of its $12 million Series A financing round. Tandem PV will use the funds to build a pilot manufacturing facility in San Jose, California.

The round was led by Bioeconomy Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, through its new Planetary Technologies fund, with participation from an international solar manufacturer and a U.S. utility company.

A research team, co-led by scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Imperial College London, has developed highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells.

Among the different types of perovskite solar cells, those with an inverted design configuration have exhibited exceptional stability, making them good candidates to reach the lifetime of commercial silicon solar cells. However, perovskite materials include chemically reactive components, which can easily volatilize and degrade under high temperature and humidity, shortening the solar cells' operational lifetime. Also, there is still a need for strategy to enhance the efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells up to 25% to rival that of silicon solar cells, while maintaining their stability.

Saule Technologies, Columbus Energy and Somfy Polska have signed a strategic cooperation agreement focused on developing innovative solutions for existing buildings and building projects under construction.

This recent agreement finalizes the understanding which the companies made in August 2021 on the occasion of launching the commercial application of Saule Technologies' sun blinds, which are sun breakers with perovskite solar cells.

The European Commission has recently given the green light to an agreement to finance the NEXUS project, focused on the development of innovative processes for TANGO HJT/Perovskite technology for the production of sustainable and high-performance photovoltaic modules.

Coordinated by the University of Oxford, the NEXUS project is supported by a multidisciplinary consortium with 12 partners from 9 European countries; 5 industrial partners, including 2 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and 7 research and technology organizations.

A research group, led by Prof. XIAO Zhengguo from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed large-area and efficient sky-blue perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) by blade-coating supersaturated perovskite solution.

Metal halide PeLEDs can achieve high luminance at low voltage due to their high electrical conductivity, making them ideal for the next generation of energy-saving lighting. Blue/sky-blue PeLEDs are essential for white lighting, but the EQE of blue light is relatively low since the crystallization process of such perovskite films is difficult to control, which results in poor film quality.

After securing an investment from SPARX Group's Mirai Creation Fund III last month, Japan-based EneCoat Technologies, developer of materials for perovskite solar cells, has received an undisclosed sum from Mitsubishi Materials and NGK Insulators.

This is Mitsubishi's second investment in EneCoat, following the one in May 2020 through its MMC Innovation Investment Limited Partnership (CVC). Mitsubishi says it aims to strengthen the relationship with EneCoat through this additional financing to work on the development of materials for the electron transport layer. Mitsubishi is already collaborating with EneCoat on its R&D.

Alfa Chemistry Materials recently announced the launch of a comprehensive line of perovskite materials

"It is no exaggeration to say that the introduction of perovskite materials innovates various fields of optoelectronics, including photovoltaic solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting devices, and many more,' says one of the senior scientists from Alfa Chemistry Materials. 'Perovskites can be obtained from a wide range of materials and can be prepared with different methods, including the traditional high-temperature solid state method, sol-gel method, hydrothermal synthesis method, high energy ball milling method and precipitation method. Besides, other methods like vapor deposition method, supercritical drying method, microemulsion method and self-propagating high-temperature combustion synthesis method could also be used.'

Researchers from the University of Rome Tor Vergata's Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE), IMEC and EPFL have reported on a solar module with an efficiency of 20.72%, based on tin oxide (SnO₂) as an electron transport layer, an organometal halide perovskite layer, organic halide salt phenethylammonium iodide (PEAI) as a passivation agent, and Spiro-OMeTAD as the hole transport layer (HTL).

The international research team presented its low-temperature planar perovskite module with an n'i'p architecture, an aperture area of 11'cm², and a geometrical fill factor of 91%.

Chinese company Golden Solar has signed an agreement with two partners to pursue commercial production of perovskite tandem solar cells with 'more than 28%' conversion efficiency.

The Chinese company, which has extremely varied areas of business, is focusing on HJT manufacturing and will combine its solar wafer and HJT technology with the HJT expertise of solar manufacturer Gold Stone (Fujian) Energy Co. Ltd. It will also draw upon the perovskite and tandem knowledge of the National University of Singapore's Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore.

Researchers from the University of Toronto and their international collaborators have leveraged quantum mechanics to optimize the active layer within an inverted perovskite solar cell.

"Perovskite crystals are made from a liquid ink and coated onto surfaces using technology that is already well-established in industry such as roll-to-roll printing," says Hao Chen, a post-doctoral researcher in Sargent's lab and one of four co-lead authors of a new paper published in Nature Photonics. "Because of this, perovskite solar cells have the potential to be mass produced at much lower energy cost than silicon. The challenge is that right now perovskite solar cells lag traditional silicon cells in stability. In this study, we aimed to close that gap."