Oh the irony, it burns. Just one day after USPresident Donald Trump took steps to salvage the dying remains of the domesticcoal industry, word has just dropped that new perovskite solar cells havegotten the seal of approval from the leading solar manufacturer Trinasolar. Thenew technology will push the cost of solar power down farther than it is now.What was that again about “beautiful, clean, coal?”
Perovskite solar cells have been generatingheadlines around the solar industry ever since 2009, when a photovoltaicresearch team based in Japan reported the successful application of nanocrystallineperovskites to generate electricity.
The report sent thousands of researchersaround the world off to pursue further refinements, lured by the potential forsynthetic forms of the naturally occurring mineral perovskite to serve as aless expensive substitute for silicon in solar cells.
That has been quite a challenge becauseperovskites are extremely fragile. In recent years the industry has coalescedaround a compromise in the form of tandemsolar cells, which merge perovskites with the durabilityof silicon to achieve a lower-costing, higher-performingsolar cell (see lots more perovskitebackground here).
Tandem Perovskite Solar Cells From Oxford PV& Trinasolar
The latest news about tandem perovskite solarcells is significant because it validates years of research under the umbrellaof the UK firm Oxford PV, and combines it with the massive manufacturing powerand market muscle of the Chinese firm Trinasolar.
Oxford PV surfaced on the CleanTechnica radarback in 2013, after it reported aconversion efficiency of 15.4% forits perovskite solar cells. The next year, the company was also on the marketwith a thinfilm perovskite layer for conventional silicon solarcells.
Fast forward to April 9 of this year, and wefind Oxford PV signing an exclusive patent licensing agreement withTrinasolar, for the “manufacture and/or sale of perovskite-based photovoltaic(PV) products in China with an additional right to sublicense.”
If you’re wondering why China and not the US,that’s a good question. After all, former US President Joe Biden spent hisentire four years in office vigorously advocating for more solar manufacturingin the US, an effort supported by two major new Acts of Congress, the 2021Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.Apparently that was not quite enough to impress Oxford PV.
“With the Chinese domestic photovoltaic (PV)market currently valued at over US$50Bn per annum and projected to grow toUS$100Bn by 2030, this agreement is a major step forward in accelerating thedeployment of next-generation PV technology,” Oxford PV explained in a pressstatement emailed to CleanTechnica.
Coming Soon To A Solar Panel Near You…InChina…
Oxford CEO David Ward left the door open,though. “Thanks to the relentless efforts of our team over the past decade, weare in a unique position to facilitate the transition of the solar industry toa high efficiency multi-junction technology platform,” Ward said. “We encourageother parties interested in a license outside of China, to contact us.”
That’s encouraging, especially consideringthat Trinasolar has a new factory under construction in Wilmer, Texas…oh, wait.Never mind. Last month, the Norwegian firm Freyr battery bought thesolar facility from Trinasolar after rebrandingitself as T1.
Meanwhile, Trinasolar is looking forward topumping perovskite solar cells into the Chinese market hand over fist.“Trinasolar is kicking off a new era of industrialization for perovskite tandemtechnology, achieving integrated advancements in technological and industrialinnovation to drive the solar industry forward,” said the company’s Chairmanand CEO, Gao Jifan.
More Good News About Perovskite Solar Cells
The Oxford-Trinasolar hookup is just oneindication that the US coal industry is not about to experience a renaissance,at least not a permanent one, despite the coal-supporting order issued by Trumpon April 8.
n addition to the fresh burst of manufacturingactivity, improvements continue apace on the research side. This week, forexample, a team based at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing reported anew three-layer carbon electrode, consisting of a porous layer of carbon, alayer of graphite layer, and a thin but dense layer of carbon. The teamachieved a certified solarconversion efficiency of more than 19%, a recordfor carbon-based perovskite solar cells.
Over in Switzerland, researchers at EPFL alsoreported a breakthrough. They have been working on the perovskitedurability challenge by deploying the soft metalrubidium, but rubidium has a tendency to wander around and interfere with solarconversion efficiency. They finally solved the problem by fabricating theirsolar cells with a heating and cooling process that distorted the atomicstructure of the material, locking the rubidium into place.
Perovskite Solar Cells In Outer Space
In addition to Earth-bound applications thatthreaten the reign of fossil fuels, perovskite solar cells are also carving outspace for themselves in the spacesolar field, another emerging technology aimed at pushingcoal, oil, and gas out of the global power generation profile.
Space solar refers to the idea of sendingsolar panels up into orbit, where they can harvest solar energy and beam itdown to Earth 24/7, regardless of what the terrestrial weather is doing. Thatidea was confined to the sci-fi novels of the past century until the early2000s, when researchers began putting the technology pieces together. Thatincludes perovskites, which are in the mix partly due to their lightweight and flexibility.
In the latest twist on the perovskite solarcell story, a team based in Germany has proposed fabricating perovskite solarcells on the Moon, deploying the rocky debris that peppers the surface as abase material instead of importing glass manufactured on Earth.
“This change alone could cut a spacecraft’slaunch mass by 99.4%, slash 99% of transport costs, and make long-term lunarsettlements more feasible,” the researchers explain.
Don’t get too excited just yet. Theresearchers tested their idea on simulated Moon dust, not actual dust from theMoon. In addition, the fabrication process has yet to be tested in a Moon-likeenvironment.
Still, the results were encouraging. TheMoon-based perovskite solar cells outperformed their Earthen counterparts onresistance to radiation, a feature that the researchers ascribe to the naturalbrown tint of Moon-derived glass.