Matthew Gunther reports that Keith Emery at NREL says that the quoted efficiencies of perovskite solar cells should be taken under consideration. The sun has certainly been shining for perovskite solar cells in recent years. First created in 2012, perovskite solar cells have shown great promise as an affordable alternative to other solar technologies and their performance has gone from strength-to-strength. Reports now suggest they are capable of efficiencies greater than 20%‚ a milestone which took other solar cells decades to reach.
But how realistic are these efficiency values? This question is now being asked by national laboratories, with a cluster of research groups finding that the very nature of efficiency testing, as well as the questionable stability of perovskites themselves, is only serving to exaggerate device performance. And unless this stability problem can be solved perovskite devices may never become a viable alternative to silicon solar cells.
All the exciting efficiencies and any energy claims that are associated with perovskite solar cells should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Keith Emery, the manager of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) photovoltaic cell and module performance characterization group in the U.S. NREL is one of several international laboratories tasked with ensuring that any claims of improved solar cell efficiency are independently verified and held to a robust standard. It is standard practice to test a cell by performing a current voltage measurement on it. The cell is irradiated with 1000W per m2 of light at a temperature of 25 degree C, mimicking the conditions of the midday sun, and its power output is measured.
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