Progress in Photovoltaics and the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released updated efficiencies for solar cells and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was recognized for the first time for the prestigious research accomplishment of world-record solar module efficiency of 18.6% for a perovskite minimodule with area of 30-60 cm2.
Yehao Deng, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Jinsong Huang research group, demonstrated superior properties for a new composition of perovskites, a material used for solar cells. The composition surpassed earlier perovskite materials for both stability and electronic properties.
“These perovskite minimodules were fabricated by a fast and low-cost blading process in air, which makes them low-cost,” Huang said. “They are achieved by combining a series of inventions created in the past five years, including new perovskite ink formulation and coating techniques, while this time we achieved both record high efficiency and stability using a perovskite composition that does not contain methylammonium ions. We are so glad to see that things worked out together nicely.”
The unsurpassed performance, combined with the relatively large size of the solar cell modules, makes the research findings highly useful for real-world solar applications.
“High efficiency and stability matter, because they reduce the cost of the solar energy system, which is one major barrier that prevents the large-scale adoption of clean and renewable photovoltaic technologies,” Huang said. The Huang research group is part of the department of applied physical sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences.