‘Miracle material’ Perovskite solar panels to finally enter production, 50% cheaper to produce
Next-generation perovskite solar panels are 50 per cent cheaper and 50 per cent more efficient than traditional silicon cells
Their efficiency drops to 90 percent after only 600 hours? Isn't that actually awful?
I'm curious about their efficiency drop off if that's what happens after 25 days.
Yup, that’s terrible. PSC’s still have a long way to go and we need to find encapsulation technologies to extend their life more, but where they shine is that they should be dirt cheap. If they cost 1/4 of silicon based cells, but only last 1/2 as long, that’s still a massive improvement.
I suppose it depends on whether the degradation is linear or if it plateaus after the initial decrease.
Also there's lead in perovskite! This stuff is sounding better by the minute.
I feel like I should clarify because the article didn't do a good job at explaining: perovskite is a kind of structure, not a particular material. They have the generic formula ABX3 (where A and B are different kinds of cations and X is some kind of anion), although not everything with the formula is a perovskite.
Simple perovskites include some lead-containing materials like lead titanate, but also lead-free materials like barium or strontium titanate. And in general there are a lot of different kinds of perovskites, especially because some of the structural sites can be filled by small organic molecules instead of pure elements.
Edit: I think I was misreading the journal article before my edit (it's early I'm not awake yet lol). I had said it looks like they're using a lead-based perovskite but actually I can't tell what exactly they're using with a quick skim. The article is very review-y, the formula I thought they were using is from another paper. I'll have a more thorough look later.
Edit 2: It's a review paper, and the way it was described in the linked news article is kinda misleading. Its not specifically about this company's particular composition or architecture.
They're okay for niche applications, but the use case is pretty narrow: situations where you want high efficiency solar harvesting, but only for a limited period (because the material degrades). Oh, and you can't use them for (say) cheap solar powered kids' trinkets, because they contain lead.
Adding from communist's comment, if they don't stay efficient very long, how easy are them to recycle? Apparently they use common materials, but does that necessarily means it's common to recycle?
