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Perovskite solar cells on the way to market maturity
Perovskite tandem solar cells show promising future potential with efficiencies of over 34 percent in the laboratory. Together with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) from the USA and other partners, KIT researchers have analyzed two production approaches that should pave the way to the market: While solvent-based processes are common in research laboratories, established photovoltaic companies rely almost exclusively on proven vacuum technologies for thin-film deposition. The research consortium sees vacuum processes as a technologically and economically promising option for the production of cells. Although these processes initially involve higher investment costs, they classify the process as competitive in terms of real parameters such as electricity costs, production yield, material, decommissioning and recycling costs. Above all, vacuum processes offer simple scaling and process control as well as the use of industrial process equipment. A first commercially sold perovskite tandem solar module from a factory in Brandenburg and an overview of commercialization activities in perovskite technology show growing interest from industry in the vacuum-based manufacturing process and thus a possible realization of cost-effective production methods in perovskite photovoltaics.
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