The project is nearing commissioning after negotiating a number of challenges and delays. This process has led to some significant learnings that have relevance for similar projects.
Report extract
Tandem solar cell design is proven as one of the most promising approaches to further reducing the photovoltaic solar cell cost through improving its efficiency. Perovskite solar cell is an ideal top cell candidate to pair with Si cells for tandems due to their outstanding optoelectronic properties, high efficiency, and low-cost fabrication.
Despite high efficiencies, Si/perovskite tandem architectures remain too complex and contain expensive materials deposited via processes with low material usage, entailing significantly increased manufacturing cost. The ANU team’s innovation of interconnect-free Si/perovskite tandems provides an ideal platform to tackle this challenge with a simplified device structure based on commercially relevant Si cells. Building on this innovation, this project is designing and developing more advanced device structures, materials, and processes to achieve high-efficiency, stable and low-cost Si/perovskite tandem technologies.