Energy Breakthrough: Perovskite Solar Cells’ Efficiency Gets a Major Boost

In 10 seconds? Back in 2019, researchers found a way to offer a 30% boost in solar cells' efficiency. That looked significant but now we might see an over threefold improvement.

What's the story? University of Rochester scientists have been tinkering with perovskite solar cells – this material has caught up in silicon in its ability to turn sunlight into electricity, while also being cheaper. In their recent study the team explained how introducing a layer of silver or silver and aluminum-oxide layer under the perovskite can avoid electrons ‘going back into their atoms’ after they’ve been dragged excited by sunlight. This is a new development on top of an earlier study that came up with a composite material and utilized certain colors in the light spectrum to get the optimum output from solar cells.