New solar cell breaks world efficiency record

KAUST Solar Center engineers have developed a silicon/perovskite tandem solar cell with efficiency

33.2% under normal sunlight.This is the highest efficiency for any type of bijunction solar cell. The record has been independently certified by the European Solar Test Facility.

The new figure is 0.7% more thanprevious record holder: cells with 32.5% efficiency from the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin team, which was announced in December last year. Recently, these records are often updated - just two years earlier, efficiency has not yet overcome the 30 percent barrier .

The KAUST team did not specify what improvements exactlywere introduced into the solar cell to set a new record. But such incremental progress usually comes through minor changes in materials, manufacturing methods, construction and design.

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On the cover: a sample of new record-breaking silicon/perovskite tandem solar cells developed by KAUSTKAUST