According to a press release, a team of researchers from ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science led by Professor Jacek Jasieniak from Monash University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering has created perovskite cells with a conversion efficiency of 15.5 percent that allows more than 20 percent of visible light through.
This enhances the stability of solar windows while enabling more natural light in, which means the amount of visible light passing through the cells is significantly now reaching glazing levels, increasing their potential for usage in a wide range of real-world applications.
The same team has since developed new cell formulations that combine caesium and formamidinium as parts of the initial perovskite composition, leading to efficiencies of 15.5 percent and 4.1 percent, with average visible transmittance of 20.7 percent and 52.4 percent, respectively, according to a study published in Advanced Science.
“This work provides a major step forward towards realizing high efficiency and stable perovskite devices that can be deployed as solar windows to fulfill what is a largely untapped market opportunity,” Jasieniak stated.
The findings stated that the semi-transparent perovskite solar cells based on caesium and formamidinium retained 85 percent of their initial power conversion efficiency after 1,000 hours of continuous light, which makes them appealing candidates for scaled device manufacture.
Transparent solar cells can gather and utilize light energy through windows or any glass surface, regardless of the angle, and it can change the game in terms of expanding the scope of solar.
This technique is also known as photovoltaic glass, and it is designed to produce varying levels of transparency.
For example, the Copenhagen International School’s design incorporates 12,000 hued yet clear solar panels across the structure, generating 200 MWh of energy yearly – more than half the energy the school consumes.