May 2024

China-based global PV and ESS supplier, Jinko Solar, has announced a significant breakthrough in the development of its N-type TOPCon-based perovskite tandem solar cell.

Tested by the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, the cell reportedly achieved an impressive conversion efficiency of 33.24%. This enhancement surpasses JinkoSolar's previous record of 32.33% for the same type of tandem cells.

It was reported that Renshine Solar will open a gigawatt-scale perovskite PV module factory in Jiangsu province, with a planned investment of CNY 1 billion ($138 million). 

The CNY 1 billion gigawatt-scale perovskite cell project will be located in the Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ) in Changshu, Jiangsu province, China. The Company started operating a 150 MW production line for perovskite modules in January. It has since claimed that its commercial modules have achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.4%.

Researchers from China's Ningbo University and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed a universal thermal reduction method to convert spent cobalt-based perovskites into high-performance bifunctional oxygen catalysts for zinc-air batteries (ZABs), achieving high-efficient Cobalt (Co) recovery and re-utilization. 

Cobalt is widely used in energy storage and conversion devices, although its content on our planet is not sufficient. Therefore, recycling it from spent Co-enriched materials is very valuable. Co-based perovskites, which contain abundant Co, are extensively utilized in solid oxide fuel cells, three-way catalysts, and oxygen-permeable membranes, and the recovery of Co from the spent Co-based perovskites is necessary to meet the long-term requirement of Co.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Japan's Yamagata University, developed three isomeric bisphosphonate-anchored self-assembled molecules (SAMs) to achieve highly efficient and stable inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs).

The wettability, absorbability and compactness of SAMs, which are used as hole-transporting layers (HTLs) for PSCs, critically affect the efficiency and stability of the devices. Therefore, the researchers proposed a molecular strategy to synthesize three bisphosphonate-anchored indolocarbazole (IDCz)-derived SAMs, namely IDCz-1, IDCz-2, and IDCz-3. The three SAMs with different positions of the two nitrogen atoms in the IDCz unit were each employed on conductive oxide substrates for inverted PSCs.

Researchers from China's Southwest Petroleum University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Chongqing University, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology and Tongwei Solar have designed a perovskite solar cell with remarkable perovskite film quality through the 'self-disintegrating seed' strategy. The device achieved both an impressive fill factor values and remarkable stability.

The researchers, in fact, report what they say is one of the highest fill factor values ever achieved for a perovskite solar cell, by reducing its nonradiative recombination and residual stress through what they called a self-disintegrating seed strategy.

Funding totaling AUD$58.3 million (over USD$38,781,000) has been announced through a recent round of the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme, supporting projects including quantum computing devices, more durable perovskite-based solar photovoltaic cells, and terahertz biosensing.

The funding was announced through the scheme, which is part of ARC’s Discovery Program and supports researchers “to design ambitious research programs around a team of postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students” in various fields.

Researchers at China's Qingdao University of Science and Technology and Canada's University of Toronto have developed a thermal regulation strategy by incorporating carboranes into perovskites to improve the performance of inverted tin-lead perovskite tech for all-perovskite tandem solar cells. 

The Chinese-Canadian research group has designed a monolithic all-perovskite tandem solar cell that utilizes a top inverted perovskite PV device based on an absorber made with mixed tin-lead (Sn-Pb) perovskite via the newly developed thermal regulation strategy.

Empa and ETH Zurich researchers are working to develop image sensors made of perovskite that could deliver true-color photos even in poor lighting conditions. Unlike conventional image sensors, where the pixels for red, green and blue lie next to each other in a grid, perovskite pixels can be stacked, thus greatly increasing the amount of light each individual pixel can capture.

A consortium comprising Maksym Kovalenko from Empa's Thin Films and Photovoltaics laboratory, Ivan Shorubalko from Empa's Transport at Nanoscale Interfaces laboratory, as well as ETH Zurich researchers Taekwang Jang and Sergii Yakunin, is working on an image sensor made of perovskite capable of capturing considerably more light than its silicon counterpart. 

Researchers from China's Beihang University and Changchun University of Technology have developed a new surface engineering strategy to build low-cost solar cells without a hole transport layer. The devices were treated with benzoylcholine halide to reduce non-radiation recombination and achieved impressive efficiency and stability.

The research group developed a carbon-based all-inorganic perovskite solar cell without the use of an expensive hole transport layer (HTL). In the proposed cell architecture, the absence of the HTL, which prevents direct contact between the carbon electrode and the perovskite, is compensated by engineering the surface composition of the perovskite film. ”The bipolar transport of the perovskite layer and the hole extraction ability of the carbon electrode provide a theoretical basis for the preparation of HTL-free CsPbI₂Br carbon-based all-inorganic perovskite solar cells,” the researchers said in their study.

Researchers at EPFL, Shanghai University and Université catholique de Louvain recently developed a method based on machine-learning to quickly and accurately search large databases, leading to the discovery of 14 new materials for solar cells.

The research project, led by EPFL's Haiyuan Wang and Alfredo Pasquarello, developed a method that combines advanced computational techniques with machine-learning to search for optimal perovskite materials for photovoltaic applications. The approach could lead to more efficient and cheaper solar panels, transforming solar industry standards.