Renewable Energy Milestone: Low-Cost and Accessible Solar Cell in Production

A team of researchers based in China has developed a new type of solar cell that could reshape the landscape of renewable energy with efficiency, stability, and longevity.

“The global energy landscape is shifting to prioritize solar and wind power,” says Liu Yiyang, spokesman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association. “Solar power has become the cheapest energy source worldwide with costs dropping over 90% in the past decade. China’s solar industry is willing to make more efforts to address climate change and boost economic growth.”

Perovskite is a low-cost, readily available inorganic material that surpasses the efficiency limits of silicon-based cells. For a long time, its thermal and chemical stability was problematic. Still, the newly developed PSCs have a power conversion efficiency of 25.6% and retain more than 90% of their initial efficiency after 1,200 hours of operation at 65° Celsius. When exposed to sunlight, perovskite converts solar energy into electricity, similar to traditional solar panels but with higher efficiency. Chinese companies such as Renshine Solar, Microquanta, and GCL Perovskite want to expand their perovskite solar cell production capacities. China is a leader in the photovoltaic industry; it exported more than 4 billion solar cells in 2022 at a total export value of $46.38 billion.