Germany has figured out how to produce large-area perovskite solar panels without losing efficiency

Perovskite solar panels are considered a worthy replacement for silicon, improving the efficiency of generating electricity from sunlight. In laboratory conditions, cells made of photocells based on perovskite show record efficiency, which is noticeably superior to silicon. Unfortunately, this advantage is lost when trying to create perovskite cells and large-area modules. German scientists were able to solve this problem.

The breakthrough was reported by researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Scientists have developed and tested a technical process during which they managed to create rather large solar panels based on perovskite and at the same time almost not lose the efficiency obtained in laboratory conditions.

So, in comparison with laboratory samples of cells with sides of several millimeters, the new samples were increased in size up to 500 times – up to an area of ​​4 cm ². The efficiency of the enlarged cells turned out to be 18%, which is only slightly lower than the capabilities of laboratory samples (25%). After several additional improvements, the proposed technology can become the basis for the mass production of perovskite solar panels. Still, the efficiency must be increased to 20%, which will be comparable and, in some cases, better than the efficiency of monocrystalline solar panels and much better than the efficiency of polycrystalline ones.

The basis of the German technology for the production of large-area solar cells from perovskite is deposition from a gaseous environment in a vacuum. The researchers state that this technology allows the deposition of material to be controlled over a large area and with many layers.