Testing under harsh conditions revealed that perovskite solar cells could lose up to 20% of their efficiency within a year, particularly in areas like Saudi Arabia, notorious for its hot and humid climate. The key question is the long-term sustainability of these cells, perhaps over a period of 30 years. Considering the time constraint in assessing each scientific innovation, the sensory panels are subjected to intense conditions such as high temperature and bright light to speed up the degradation process.
Silicon solar panels, which constitute over 90% of the current commercial solar market, typically undergo this kind of testing. However, it remains to be seen how these processes adapt to new materials such as perovskites. A significant concern is the rapid degradation of perovskites due to light, moisture, and heat. Currently, the challenge is to determine which of these factors, or their combination, can be effectively used for lab testing in order to predict the actual performance of a solar panel.
A study published in Nature last year proposed that a combination of high temperature and lighting could form the basis for accelerated testing that reliably indicates real-world performance. This study revealed that high-temperature testing for few hundred hours translated effectively to almost six months of outdoor performance. It is expected that new solar materials will be introduced as early as this year. This will give us a chance to evaluate how effectively these tests predict the performance of new technologies in the demanding conditions required by commercial solar panels.
You can find more insights on why high-efficiency tandem solar cells are among the 10 breakthrough technologies in 2024 [here].
