Bifacial tandem perovskite-CdSeTe solar cell with 20% efficiency

Developed by U.S. scientists, the cell is claimed to achieve an equivalent bifacial efficiency of more than 20% with an open-circuit voltage of more than 2 V. The choice of the bifacial architecture is intended at increasing the device’s power yield in order to offset the high costs for producing the CdSeTe sub-cell.

November 4, 2021 Emiliano Bellini

UToledo has a patent pending on the technology called the monolithic bifacial perovskite-CST tandem cell.

Image: University of Toledo

A group of researchers from the University of Toledo (UToledo), in the United States, has developed a bifacial tandem thin-film solar cell based on wide-bandgap perovskite and narrow-bandgap cadmium selenium telluride (CdSeTe).

The choice of the bifacial architecture is intended at increasing the device's power yield in order to offset the high costs for producing the CdSeTe sub-cell, the scientists explained. According to their theoretical simulations, the monolithic bifacial tandem design can increase the output power density limit of conventional CdSeTe solar modules by up to 50% with a light-color concrete ground with albedo values ranging from 0.1 to 0.3.

The prototype of the cell is claimed to achieve an equivalent bifacial efficiency of more than 20%, with an open-circuit voltage of more than 2 V. The cell can be manufactured with a front contact made of transparent conductive oxides (TCO), a hole transport layer (HTL), a perovskite layer, an electron transport layer, an interconnecting layer, a CdSeTe layer, a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate, and a glass cover.

The scientists also said the proposed cell technology can be easily integrated into the industrial production lines of CdSeTe panels, and that it is compatible with wide-bandgap (FA,MA,Cs)Pb(Br1-x,Ix)3 perovskite and narrow-bandgap CdSeTe. “Additional costs of producing perovskite cell component layers on the commercial CdSeTe solar cells are estimated to be less than 15% of the total cost of the current CdSeTe solar modules,” they explained.

The U.S. Department of Energy is supporting the further development of the cell with a $300,000 grant. UToledo has a patent pending for the cell technology.

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