Oxford PV touts 28.6% efficiency for commercial-sized tandem cell

Oxford PV on Wednesday said it has set a new world record for the efficiency of a commercial-sized perovskite tandem solar cell of 28.6%, which has been certified by Fraunhofer ISE.

The record conversion efficiency was achieved on a solar cell made by depositing a perovskite thin-film cell onto a conventional silicon heterojunction cell. It compares to an average efficiency for the mainstream silicon-only solar cells of 22%-24%.

The cell was manufactured at the company’s production line in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, which has started initial production of tandem solar cells for integration by solar module manufacturing partners, according to the announcement.

“Our latest efficiency achievement of 28.6% is more than 1.5% above our record set last year and exceeds our own roadmap plan of 1% annual increases,” said Oxford PV chief technology officer Chris Case.

“These record-setting solar cells are made on the same production line as our 27% efficient commercial solar cells, which already meet strict performance and reliability targets,” added Case.

The record is for a commercial-sized cell, rather than a research and development (R&D) cell.

In April, researchers at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) announced the development of a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with the world’s highest power conversion efficiency of 33.2%.

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