UNSW researchers set new perovskite solar efficiency record

Engineers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), in collaboration with UtmoLight, have established a new world efficiency record for large-scale perovskite solar submodules. The team achieved a certified stabilized power conversion efficiency of 23.5%, surpassing the previous benchmark by 0.6 percentage points. This achievement is notable for its scale, as the record was set on a 30 x 30cm submodule with an aperture area of 676 square centimeters, demonstrating that perovskite technology can maintain high performance when scaled from small laboratory cells to industrially relevant sizes.

In a separate but related effort, UNSW is conducting an $18 million project to test the durability of emerging solar technologies in real-world conditions. Supported by $5.6 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, researchers will install up to 160 commercial perovskite and perovskite-silicon tandem modules at the university’s Water Research Laboratory in Sydney. The five-year study aims to assess how these modules withstand environmental stressors such as humidity, ultraviolet radiation, and temperature fluctuations, addressing the critical challenge of perovskite degradation compared to traditional silicon modules.