Toward scalable perovskite‐based multijunction solar modules

Abstract

Perovskite‐based multijunction solar cells can potentially overcome the power conversion efficiency (PCE) limits of established solar cell technologies. The technology combines high‐efficiency perovskite top solar cells with crystalline silicon (c‐Si) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) single‐junction solar cells enabling a more efficient harnessing of solar energy. In this work, we present high‐efficiency and scalable perovskite‐CIGS and perovskite‐Si multijunction solar modules in a four‐terminal configuration. We design the multijunction solar modules for minimal optical losses through careful optical engineering. In addition to optimized light coupling, the solar modules are fabricated in a scalable device design. Starting from lab‐scale cells of 0.13 cm2, we scale up the multijunction devices by two orders of magnitude to 16 cm2 and investigate the various losses affecting the PCE of large‐area multijunction solar modules, thus providing valuable insights into scalability of the technology. The champion perovskite‐CIGS and perovskite‐Si multijunction solar modules exhibit higher PCE than the stand‐alone devices on sizes up 16 cm2, paving the way for high‐effiency perovskite‐based multijunction photovoltaics. This work brings to forth relevant upscaling aspects of perovskite‐based multijunction solar cell technology, which is a key milestone in the road to commercial feasibility of the perovskite‐based multijunction solar cell technology.

Highly Efficient Thermally Co-evaporated Perovskite Solar Cells and Mini-modules

“…34,35 Meanwhile, most of the research efforts on PSMs have been poured into engineering large-area perovskite thin films with low defect density, large crystal grain, and low surface roughness. In this regard, blade coating, [36][37][38][39][40] spray coating, 41 slot die coating, 42,43 spin coating with anti-solvent, and [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] one-step, 5,[55][56][57] two-steps, [58][59][60] and hot casting 61 methods have been successfully implemented to deposit high-quality, large-area perovskite thin films. Recently, Qi and co-workers developed a hybrid chemical vapor deposition and cation exchange (HCVD-CE) 62,63 method combined with spin coating for depositing large area perovskite thin films.…”

2D/3D Heterostructure for Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells with Engineered Bandgap Enables Efficiencies Exceeding 25% in Four‐Terminal Tandems with Silicon and CIGS

“…To date, the most efficient perovskite‐based tandem solar cells have been realized using PSCs on top of low‐bandgap c‐Si [ 6,18,21,23,25,34–42,43 ] or thin‐film CIGS ( E g ≈ 1.0–1.2 eV) [ 24,44–49 ] solar cells. [ 4,19,20,50 ] Record PCEs of up to 29.1% (perovskite/c‐Si, 2T), [ 6 ] 27.7% (perovskite/c‐Si, 4T), [ 43,51 ] 23.3% (perovskite/CIGS, 2T), [ 48 ] and 25.9% (perovskite/CIGS, 4T) [ 45 ] have been reported for the different architectures and configurations. The strong contrast between simulated (≈33%) and experimental tandem device performance is mainly due to various optical and electrical losses that reduce the PCE of today's prototype tandem solar cells.…”

Design of Perovskite Thermally Co‐Evaporated Highly Efficient Mini‐Modules with High Geometrical Fill Factors

“…To meet the requirements of high quality and large area uniformity for perovskite films, several deposition methods based on solution, vacuum, and solution-vacuum hybrid processes have been developed and optimized. [6][7][8][9] The recent works based on solution processes, such as by spin-coating, [6,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] spray-coating, [7] blade coating, [8,[20][21][22][23] slot-die coating, [24,25] softcover, [26,27] and screen printing [28] the devices have reached PCEs ranging from 10% to 18% over areas reaching 100 cm 2 . Some strategies such as solvent optimization, [23] additive engineering, [20] and substrate temperature control [29] have been adopted to obtain large crystal size and pinhole-free film over a large area and thus significantly improve the PCE in the solution-based processes.…”