TNO and TU/e develop thermally stable perovskite solar cells

Solliance Solar Research has announced a major accomplishment in the thermal stability of perovskite technology. The thermal stability was tested over a period of 3.000 hours. After this thermal stress test, the cell performance showed 93% of the initial performance.

Mehrdad Najafi, researcher at Solliance Solar Research, who will be presenting the work at the EU PVSEC in Belgium on September 27th, states: "Perovskite solar cells have attracted great attention due to their high power conversion efficiency Demonstrated stability and scale-ability, two very important topics within the Solliance collaboration, are the next steps towards successful commercialization of this technology. Our recent results show that it is possible to achieve stable perovskite solar cells upon prolonged exposure to thermal stress. After a further full-stack optimization and the introduction of a metal oxide layer by means of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), the thermal stability improved drastically compared with our previous reference: instead of losing over 50% of its performance after 100 hours at 85oC, we now demonstrate only 7% of performance loss after 3.000 hours at 85oC. This is an important stepping stone towards full IEC compliance".

Adriana Creatore, Associate Professor at the Applied Physics department of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), partner in Solliance Solar Research, comments on this accomplishment: "In the past 3 years we have been working with TNO towards the improvement in efficiency and stability of the hybrid perovskite PV technology. We are very happy to see that our fundamental research on interface engineering between atomic layer deposited (ALD) metal oxide- base charge transport layers and perovskite absorber, contributes to advancements in this extraordinary PV technology".

"Note that the perovskite solar cell used in this test, recalls the structure of the semi-transparent perovskite solar cell Solliance used for its 26.3% hybrid perovskite / crystalline silicon tandem solar cell which Solliance, ECN part of TNO and Choshu Industry Co, Ltd announced earlier this year together. Therefore, this stability accomplishment also adds weight to this hybrid tandem result. Since this small perovskite solar cell (0.09 cm²) combines good performance with good thermal stability, we are now working to apply pilot scale process equipment provided by our industrial partners to bring this perovskite solar cell to a viable industrial production process for perovskite solar modules" adds Sjoerd Veenstra, program manager Perovskite Solar Cells at Solliance. "Also, the expertise of industrial partners of Solliance Solar Research in sheet-to-sheet spatial ALD and laser interconnection of thin film cells is used to scale-up the technology to demonstration modules".