Anker has reportedly unveiled its first solar umbrella at CES 2025, designed to charge electronic devices — like coolers or phones — while outdoors. To do so, Anker’s product makes use of perovskite solar cells. 

Image from: techcrunch

Anker announced this umbrella alongside several other new products at CES 2025, including the second generation of its EverFrost electric cooler for which the umbrella can be viewed as a complementary accessory, as it can be attached to the cooler to power it. 

According to reports, Sekisui Chemical, which recently invested in a 100 MW perovskite solar production plant, has announced its latest demonstration project at two sites owned by Japan’s MUFG Bank, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The project aims to both raise awareness of practical applications of perovskite solar PV technology and to further verify durability, weather resistance, and performance.

It seems that the project includes two installations, one located at MUFG Bank Oi Branch, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, featuring perovskite solar panels installed behind window panes at the entrance to power an outdoor display notice board, and a second site - a rooftop installation at MUFG Global Learning Center in Nishi-ku, Yokohama City where perovskite modules are installed alongside conventional silicon solar panels.

JinkoSolar has announced that it has achieved a significant breakthrough in the development of its N-type TOPCon-based perovskite tandem solar cell. Independently tested by the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the cell achieved an impressive conversion efficiency of 33.84%, surpassing JinkoSolar's previous record of 33.24%. This achievement marks the 27th time JinkoSolar has set a world record for efficiency and power output for PV products.

The record-breaking perovskite tandem solar cell utilizes JinkoSolar's N-type high-efficiency monocrystalline TOPCon solar cell as the bottom cell, enhanced by significant advancements across multiple key technologies. Innovations such as full-area passivated contact technology, perovskite interfacial defect passivation technology, and bulk defect passivation technology have contributed to the enhanced efficiency of the perovskite/TOPCon tandem cell. This achievement highlights the compatibility of TOPCon as a mainstream solar cell technology with the next-generation perovskite/silicon tandem cell technology, paving the way for new possibilities in the future development of the photovoltaic industry.

Researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Beijing Institute of Technology and University of California Los Angeles have addressed the fragile and moisture-sensitive nature of halide perovskite materials by using an asynchronous cross-linking strategy. 

Schematic illustration of intermediate-dominated perovskite crystallization by pre-embedded DVS and all-around co-polymerization protection through the post-treatment of gly. Image credit: Nature Communications

A multifunctional cross-linking initiator, divinyl sulfone (DVS), is firstly pre-embedded into perovskite precursor solutions. DVS facilitates intermediate-dominated perovskite crystallization manipulation, favoring formamidine-DVS based solvate transition. Subsequently, DVS-embedded perovskite as-cast films are post-treated with a nucleophilic reagent, glycerinum, to trigger controllably three-dimensional co-polymerization. The resulting cross-linking scaffold provides enhanced water-resistance, releases residual tensile strain, and suppresses deep-level defects. 

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai), which operates the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, has announced plans to install perovskite solar cells on noise barriers along its tracks. The company expects to use electricity generated by these cells to power lighting at stations and other rail-related facilities. The noise barriers will cover about 650 kilometers of track.

Demonstration experiments will start at a research center in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, and elsewhere this month, using perovskite solar cells jointly developed with Sekisui Chemical.

Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Hefei University of Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Tianjin Jinhang Computing Technology Research Institute have developed a retinomorphic hardware prototype that uses a 4096-pixel perovskite image sensor array as core module to endow embodied intelligent vision functionalities. 

(A) Adaptive sensing-perception by the biological visual system through the hierarchy of photoreceptors, horizontal cells, bipolar cells, amacrine cells, and ganglion cells. (B) Schematic illustration and working principle of the retinomorphic computing system based on a 4096-pixel 1T-1PD perovskite RSA, microcontroller unit (MCU), and field-programmable gate array (FPGA). ADC, analog-to-digital converter; TIS, trans-impedance amplifier; DAC, digital-to-analog converter. Image from: Science Advances

The team explained that retinomorphic systems that can see, recognize, and respond to real-time environmental information could extend the complexity and range of tasks that an exoskeleton robot can perform to better assist physically disabled people. However, the lack of ultrasensitive, reconfigurable, and large-scale integratable retinomorphic devices and advanced edge-processing algorithms makes it difficult to realize retinomorphic hardware.

It was reported that Kunshan GCL Photoelectric Materials (GCL Perovskite), a subsidiary of GCL Tech, has announced that it has achieved a high photoelectric conversion efficiency of 22.43% on its large 2048cm² single-junction perovskite solar module. The result was verified by the China National Institute of Metrology.

GCL Perovskite’s R&D team has designed a technical solution to optimize module performance by not only reducing the series resistance of large area perovskite modules, but also significantly reducing the non-radiative compound loss. As a result, the fill factor (FF) of the 2048cm² large area perovskite monojunction module was increased to 82.3% and the efficiency to 22.43%, both of which are said to set new world records.

Researchers from Huaqiao University, City University of Hong Kong and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have explained that highly efficient perovskite solar cells in the n-i-p structure demonstrated limited operational lifetimes earlier due to the layer-to-layer ion diffusion in perovskite/doped hole-transport layer (HTL) heterojunction, leading to conductivity drop in HTL and component loss in perovskites. Now, they have reached 26.39% efficiency of perovskite solar cells using an ultrathin (~7 nm) p-type polymeric interlayer (D18) with excellent ion-blocking ability between perovskite and HTL to address these issues.

Device architecture, the structure of D18 polymer, and the detailed ion blocking effect of D18 membrane. Image credit: Nature Communications

The ultrathin D18 interlayer effectively inhibits the layer-to-layer diffusion of lithium, methylammonium, formamidium, and iodide ions. Additionally, D18 improves the energy-level alignment at the perovskite/HTL interface and facilitates efficient hole extraction.