A group of researchers have developed a next-generation, more economical perovskite-based solar battery, thereby creating the world’s most efficient solar cell.

Led by Professor Seok Sang-il of Sungkyunkwan University, the team announced on January 9 that they have successfully developed a new perovskite solar cell technology. The newly developed solar cells are priced at one third the price of existing silicon solar cells and show an efficiency performance rate of 20.1 percent, equivalent to existing silicon solar cells.

This is now the most efficient solar cell officially recognized by the U.S.-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Currently, silicon solar cells account for about 90 percent of the solar cell market. Silicon solar cells are made from high-purity silicon. They are highly efficient at transforming solar energy into electric energy. Their weaknesses, however, is their complicated production process and expensive price.

Perovskite, the main material which the researchers used, has a crystal structure and is highly conductive. It is a combined material made from organic matter, such as formamidinium and methylammonium, and inorganic substance, such as lead and halide. The production cost of perovskite is one third lower than that of silicon. Perovskite is bendable and highly versatile as it is a film-type material. However, it does have a lower rate of transforming solar energy into electric energy, which has prevented its commercialization in the past.

The researchers painted a low-priced chemical substance onto the perovskite solar cells, which opened a new way for commercialization. This helped them develop a new solar cell with an efficiency of 18.4 percent.



Professor Seok said, “It is meaningful that we developed a new technology that helps overcome the limited efficiency of the existing low-priced solar cells. Commercialization will be possible after we finish developing highly stable source technology and continuous processing technology for a larger area.”

The research was sponsored through a support project for global research undertaken by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning. Research results were published online in Nature on January 7.



By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Sungkyunkwan University
arete@korea.kr