Researchers at the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) have developed a bifacial tandem solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 30.2%. The new cell device ' created with Dutch consortium Solliance ' was made by applying a newly developed perovskite cell on top of an industrial bifacial crystalline silicon version.
This approach, according to the scientists, enables a significantly higher power conversion efficiency as one cell is optimized for high energy photons, and the other low energy particles. 'The tandem device proposed here uses a four-terminal configuration, thus having separate circuits for the top and bottom cells that allow for dynamic fine tuning and optimization of the energy yield,' the creators of the cell wrote. The cell is also said to be better able to capture light on its front and rear sides by responding to the variability of incident light through its electronic design.
The team believes the efficiency of its cell could reach 35% within three to five years. 'We want to shorten the time to market and therefore we work together with our partners to make this technology ready for mass production,' said Gianluca Coletti, program manager for tandem technology at the ECN.
Solliance and the ECN announced last March they had achieved 26.3% efficiency on a transparent perovskite solar cell combined with a crystalline silicon cell.
