PEROVSKITE THE NEW KID ON THE SOLAR BLOCK.

A South Korean firm has announced the world’s first production line for perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells, which promise an increase in efficiency of between 50-75 per cent compared to standard solar panels. The commercialisation of solar cells that use perovskite follows years of breakthroughs with the mineral, which has been hailed as a ‘miracle material’ for its potential to transform various industries, including renewable energy. Seoul-based Qcells said it will invest $100 million to roll out the next-generation solar cell technology, which until now has been limited to lab tests and academic research. Tandem solar cells are able to improve the efficiency of standard solar panels by splitting the light spectrum and optimising the harvesting of energy from each section into electricity. The current world record for solar cell efficiency is 32.5 per cent – meaning nearly a third of solar radiation is converted into electrical energy – which was achieved with a perovskite-silicon tandem cell. By comparison, traditional silicon-based solar cells are currently only capable of reaching around 22 per cent efficiency.

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