Solar panels are a technology that still has a long way to go. In addition to the traditional ones, other alternatives have come to light in recent months, such as easy-to-place and much lighter adhesives. Now, Meyer Burguer has developed new ones with an efficiency of 29.6%.
It is a tandem perovskite solar cell, that is, it consists of two superimposed active layers that have different sunlight-harvesting properties.
Marcel König, Director of R&D at Meyer Burger, has declared: “Thanks to a long tradition of own development, Meyer Burger has a broad portfolio of processes, technologies and production techniques for the possible production of cells and modules in series tandem solar.
He adds: “This includes the essential manufacturing processes and machinery for silicon-based perovskite tandem solar cells, as well as the corresponding solar modules with Meyer Burger’s proprietary SmartWire connection technology. Coupled with the capabilities of our academic partners, this is a unique recipe for success.”
Of course, it is not the efficiency record for a panel of this type, since a team of researchers has achieved some with the best efficiency recorded.
Formed by Steve Albrecht, Silvia Mariotti, Eike Köhnen and Lea Zimmermann, from the Berlin Helmholtz Center for Materials and Energy (HZB), they have created a model of a tandem perovskite and silicon solar cell that achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 32, 5%.
It may not sound like much, but it’s a higher conversion rate than usual. To exemplify how this field has evolved, the HZB teams set a record at the end of 2021 with 29.8% and this summer the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland managed to break it, reaching 31.3%.