Processing and Architecture Design to Develop and Demonstrate Stable and Efficient Perovskite+Silicon Tandem Modules

This applied research project moved perovskite+silicon tandem photovoltaic technology, a thinfilm approach to solar photovoltaics, using synthesized minerals of the formula ABX3 (e.g., calcium titanium oxide – CaTiO3), one step closer to commercial readiness. Perovskite+silicon tandem photovoltaic solar panels offer extremely high performance, with up to 25-percent to 30-percent efficiency. This would directly reduce the cost to install solar for California ratepayers by up to 40 percent and move the state closer to its ambitious climate and sustainability goals. This project demonstrates stable perovskite solar cells and panels and a shift from small-area, bench-scale academic processes for fabricating perovskite solar cells and panels to scalable, high-throughput, high-yield industrial processes and commercialquality performance at product scale. This project developed a blade-coating process for an initial proof of scale up to 6 inches wide, demonstrated the three-month field durability of perovskite solar cells and over 10,000 hours of operational testing durability, demonstrated over 22-percent efficient tandem solar panels, and developed a recycling process for recovering materials at the tandem solar panels’ end of life.