Improvements in silicon-perovskite tandem cells help reach whopping 32.5 percent efficiency
29, 30, 32… — these are not random numbers, but the efficiency of solar cells, measured by the percentage of incidental sunlight they convert into electrical power. The ellipsis at the end of the line is also not a coincidence, as the efficiency of tandem solar cells has already exceeded 32%. “There is a kind of race going on among research teams around the world. In the last year, the solar cell efficiency record has been broken three or four times, it’s just the publication of scientific papers that takes time,” says Dr Artiom Magomedov, a researcher at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: solar
Declining costs and government encouragement have resulted in a rapid increase in solar energy production in the United States over the past 10 years, although solar’s share remains small: 1.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018. That rapid growth is projected to continue.