On September 21, 2018, Science published an article titled "Challenges for commercializing perovskite solar cells" by Professor Hongwei Han's research group from Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). Associate professor Yaoguang Rong and Yue Hu and Dr. Anyi Mei from HUST are joint first authors. Professor Hongwei Han from HUST, Professor Edward H. Sargent from Univerity of Toronto, Professor Michael D. McGehee from University of Colorado and Professor Sang II Seok from Ulsan National Institute of science and technology are communication authors.
Making full use of solar energy is the key to the issues of energy shortage and environmental pollution. Perovskite solar cells, the outstanding representative of new solar cells, own the potential to achieve low-cost photovoltaics with earth abundant elements compositions and simple solution preparation. Therefore, it has attracted worldwide attention of scientific researchers and industry. In the past few years, a variety of device structures have been explorered (Fig. 1A). The power conversion efficiency as well as the stability improved greatly. At present, plenty of researchers are working on the perovskite solar cells and also many companies at home and abroad aim at their commercialization and spread. Pointing at the key problems and challenges in the commercialization, the article overviewed the latest progress in perovskite solar cells and provided a prospect of their further development and commercialization concerning the criterion of lifetime, the mechanism of performance degradation, the enlargement of devices and the impact on the environment.
Figure 1. Configurations and application demonstration of PSCs. (A) PSCs have been developed in various device configurations, including mesoscopic, planar, triple mesoscopic and tandem structures. (B) A 110 m2 perovskite PV system with printable triple mesoscopic PSC modules (3600 cm2 for each) was launched by WonderSolar in China.
WonderSolar in China announced its latest milestone: a perovskite PV system with printable triple mesoscopic PSC modules that exceeding a total area of 110m2 (shown in Figure 1B). The system is at estament to two crucial areas of progress in PSCs over the past few years: the devices longevity and their ability to upscale. Further studies of these increased-area modules and systems will expand to cover both fundamental topics on materials and lab-sized cells, and also studies to address issues of industrial-scale manufacturing and deployment.
WonderSolar is not the only commercial player in perovskite. Microquanta Semiconductor recently obtained the highest efficiency of rigid perovskite mini-module; Saule Technologies is working on flexible perovskite cells; a consortiun that includes Greatcell Solar,S olliance, Oxford PV, Solaronix and Tandem PV is developing stand-alone and tandem cells; and several other companies are in the mix.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6408/eaat8235
