New type of solar cell replaces silicon with inexpensive perovskite

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A new design for solar cells that uses inexpensive, commonly available materials, including tin and other abundant elements, could rival and even outperform conventional cells made of silicon.

The resulting new type of solar cell, which replaces silicon with a crystal called perovskite, converts sunlight to electricity at efficiencies similar to current technology but at much lower cost, said researchers from Stanford University in the United States and Oxford University in Britain.

Perovskite is a photovoltaic crystalline material that is thinner, more flexible and easier to manufacture than silicon crystals. The new device consists of two perovskite solar cells stacked in tandem. Each cell is printed on glass.

"Perovskite semiconductors have shown great promise for making high-efficiency solar cells at low cost," said Michael McGehee, a professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford and co-authored on a study published in the recent issue of the journal Science. "We have designed a robust, all-perovskite device that converts sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of 20.3 percent, a rate comparable to silicon solar cells on the market today."