Perovskite Solar - Page 31

According to recent reports, China-based Xi'an Tianjiao New Energy has obtained nearly 100 million yuan (over USD$14,100,00) in angel round financing, led by Winreal Investment. The funds will primarily be used for building a perovskite pilot production line with a capacity of 10MW alongside other operational expenses covering consumables and staff.

Tianjiao, a perovskite solar cell developer, specializes in manufacturing single-cell perovskite modules including both flexible and rigid types. The rigid modules find their use primarily in PVBI, whereas the flexible ones are mounted on car roofs or used in 5G base stations.

French PV module manufacturer Voltec Solar has secured €9.3 million ($10.1 million) from Ademe, France’s environmental agency. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the production of perovskite-silicon tandem solar panels.

The French manufacturer currently operates two 250 MW production lines at its factory in Dinsheim-sur-Bruche, France.

Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and of two Helmholtz platforms—Helmholtz Imaging at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Helmholtz AI—have found a way to predict the quality of the perovskite layers and consequently that of the resulting solar cells. Using machine learning and new methods in artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible to assess their quality from variations in light emission already in the manufacturing process.

"Manufacturing these high-grade, multi-crystalline thin layers without any deficiencies or holes using low-cost and scalable methods is one of the biggest challenges," says tenure-track professor Ulrich W. Paetzold who conducts research at the Institute of Microstructure Technology and the Light Technology Institute of KIT.

Researchers at Northwestern University and University of Toronto have developed a way to improve the efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cell using a combination of molecules to address different issues. They reported a dual-molecule solution to overcoming losses in efficiency as sunlight is converted to energy. 

By incorporating a molecule to address surface recombination, in which electrons are lost when they are trapped by defects — missing atoms on the surface, with a second molecule to disrupt recombination at the interface between layers, the team achieved a National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) certified efficiency of 25.1% where earlier approaches reached efficiencies of just 24.09%.

Researchers from Australia's RMIT University, Monash University, CSIRO Manufacturing, La Trobe University, and Georgia Institute of Technology in the US recently used AI to produce perovskite solar cells in just a matter of weeks, bypassing years of human labor and human error to optimize the cells.

“Until now, the process of creating perovskite cells has been more like alchemy than science – record efficiencies have been reached, but positive results are notoriously difficult to reproduce,” said study lead, author Dr. Nastaran Meftahi from RMIT University’s School of Science. “What we have achieved is the development of a method for rapidly and reproducibly making and testing new solar cells, where each generation learns from and improves upon the previous.”

Researchers from Nanjing University and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China have designed an all-perovskite tandem solar cell based on a wide bandgap perovskite top cell relying on a two-dimensional/three-dimensional heterostructure and a narrow bandgap bottom cell.

Schematic of the solar cell structure and the corresponding cross-sectional SEM image of an all-perovskite tandem solar cell. Image from Nature Communications

The research group used a generic 3D-to-2D perovskite conversion approach to fabricate the top cell. They first deposited a lead-halide perovskite (methylammonium lead iodide - MAPbI₃) layer by a hybrid evaporation/solution method and then transformed the layer into a 2D structure via a long-chain ammonium ligand.

France-based Armor Group has acquired a 20% stake in French solar module maker HoloSolis. 

In 2025, HoloSolis plans to open a TOPCon PV cell and panel factory in France. At full capacity from 2027, the factory is expected to employ 1,700 people and produce 10 million modules per year, for a total capacity of 5 GW per year. HoloSolis is also working on the next generation of solar panels and the perovskite-silicon tandem cells.

Huasun Energy, China-based developer of HJT solar products, has raised more than RMB2 billion (over USD$275,600,000) in its Series C funding. The lead investor is China Green Development Investment Group (China Green Development), with co-investments from Bank of China Asset Management Co., Ltd. (Bank of China Asset) and China Post Insurance Company Limited (China Post Insurance). Originvest and China Xinxing Asset Management Co., Ltd. (China Xinxing Asset) also increased their investment in this round. 

The funding will be used to further expand the production of Huasun's high-efficiency heterojunction (HJT) products and to support the R&D of cutting-edge technologies, including heterojunction-perovskite tandem solar cells.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Peking University and  Soochow University have developed a polycrystalline silicon tunnelling recombination layer for perovskite/tunnel oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) silicon tandem solar cells (TSCs), which has reportedly achieved excellent efficiency and high stability.  

According to the team, previous efforts to increase device efficiency have mainly focused on improving the top sub-cell, leaving much room for improvement. The recombination layer, which serves as the electrical contact between the top and bottom sub-cells, plays a critical role in further efficiency progress. In this study, the researchers developed a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) tunnelling recombination layer that was incorporated into a perovskite/TOPCon silicon tandem cell. Through a two-step annealing strategy, the diffusion of boron and phosphorus dopants could be effectively restrained, granting the device excellent passivation and contact performance.

Tokyo Chemical Industry (TCI), a global supplier of laboratory chemicals and specialty materials, is offering a stable supply of high-quality Spiro-OMeTAD hole transport materials, used in perovskite solar panels, light emitting devices and other applications.

Spiro-OMeTAD materials are suitable for solution processing, and feature a HOMO of -5.0 eV and a LUMO of -1.5 eV. This is a standard material used in many perovskite stacks, and is the benchmark material also used in many research activities for comparative evaluation.

 TCI has a large-scale capacity to produce this material, in very high quality and at a relatively low cost. See here for more info.