Oxford University has created a perovskite film so thin that it turns any object into a solar panel

One-tenth the length of a human hair. That’s the thickness of the perovskite films being tested in the UK. Their creators believe they will one day coat all kinds of buildings and objects, eliminating the need for conventional solar panels.

In short. A team of physicists from the University of Oxford has developed an ultra-thin film capable of converting sunlight into an impressive amount of electricity.

The perovskite-based material is so thin and flexible that it can be applied as a coating on virtually any building or everyday object, such as backpacks, cars and mobile phones.

In detail. With a thickness of just over a micron, the new perovskite film developed by Shuaifeng Hu and their colleagues at the Oxford Department of Physics is 150 times thinner than a silicon wafer.

To achieve this, they invented a new technique that stacks multiple layers of light-absorbing material in a single photovoltaic cell. In this way, each cell captures a broader range of the light spectrum.

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As efficient as silicon panels. What is truly revolutionary about this ultra-thin material is that it has a certified energy efficiency of 27%. This is below the record for double-junction perovskite-silicon cells, but on par with the best conventional silicon solar panels.

The certification, Hu clarifies, was granted by an independent entity: Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). But his expectation is that the material’s efficiency will continue to increase as manufacturing techniques improve:

“In just five years of experimenting with our stacking or multi-junction approach, we have raised power conversion efficiency from 6% to over 27%, close to the limits of what single-layer photovoltaic cells can achieve today.

We believe that over time, this approach could enable photovoltaic devices to achieve much higher efficiencies, above 45%.”

Solar panels everywhere. Researchers expect perovskite coatings to be applied to a much wider range of surfaces than conventional solar panels, and may even discourage the installation of self-consumption solar panels and large solar farms in favor of buildings and objects coated with this material.

The ultra-thin perovskite film can be applied to all types of surfaces, including the roof of a vehicle or the back of mobile phones.

Its marketing has already begun. Oxford PV, a company spun out of Oxford University in 2010, has begun mass production of 24.5% efficient perovskite films at its factory in Brandenburg, near Berlin. This is the first time that such solar panels have been mass produced.

The current challenge is price. Oxford PV does not reveal it publiclybut says its approach will continue to drive down the cost of solar power and make it the most sustainable form of renewable energy. Since 2010, the global average cost of solar electricity has fallen by 90% to a third cheaper than that generated from fossil fuels.

Image | Oxford University

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