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With new semi technologies and processes coming out at an increasing rate, we will see changes in everything, just as LEDs have revolutionized lighting. Advances in solar combined with advances in batteries with the efficiencies of everything increasing, we will see an accelerating rate of disruption in just about everything. The greatest threat to advancement is special interests protecting the status quo, like US medical that has given us some of the highest cost for some of the lowest quality. Advancing tech in many areas is about special interests as much as the technology itself. This advance combined with better and lower cost batteries could become a major game changer in the energy sector. One question is could this same technology be used to increase the efficiency and light output of LEDs? If this works out, the solar cells mounted on car bodies could provide a very significant amount of the power needed for most and some, all of it.
Perovskites are one of the most promising new materials for solar cell technology. Now engineers at the University of Rochester have developed a new way to more than triple the material’s efficiency by adding a layer of reflective silver underneath it.
One question is could this same technology be used to increase the efficiency and light output of LEDs? If this works out, the solar cells mounted on car bodies could provide a very significant amount of the power needed for most and some, all of it.
It is not clear it even multiplies all perovskites, certainly not by a factor of 3 since the best results already use other ways to avoid losses. It is best to think about it as a new tool which will combine with other enhancements. Electron lifetime and recombination is an issue with silicon cells too, so it might give them a boost too.
It is exciting to see that combined perovskite-silicon dual layer cells can exceed 40% efficiency and still improving. If they can stabilize them for long field life they could reduce costs and impact since you get more out for a given investment in structural support and land use, and those are large parts of the practical delivery.
newatlas.com