PV cell efficiency edges ever upward.

[Joeboy]

Good to see.
https://www.oxfordpv.com/news/oxford-pv ... rld-record

[Stinsy]

We are at the stage where Solar PV is mature technology and the improvements are teeny!

[Fintray]

Still more than 5% greater output than their previous best though.

[Mart]

Totally agree that the improvements are now small, but Perovskite catching up with silicon, and also being much cheaper is close to opening the doors to tandem PV (using Perovskite and Silicon). That means 30%(ish) effecient PV panels, and should rise to high 30%'s.

But .... the important part, is that the cheapness of perovskite should offset the cost complexity of producing a tandem cell, so the cost per Wp should remain the same, for example:

for a panel of a given dimension with say 400Wp mono-silicon (£200), could be 550Wp for the tandem panel (£275), so proportionatly the same cost, (prices are made up, by me, just as an example).

So you get a large increase in output for the same area/roof, plus because the panels only represent part of the install cost (perhaps 30% for roof mounted, and 50% for PV farm), [Edit - I had the 30 and 50 percent figures the wrong way around] you get the large energy increase, for a smaller increase in the total cost. [Just a thought, but those are CAPEX costs, I'm wondering if there is any increase in OPEX for a PV farm(?) so even greater reduction in generation costs.]

Also, we need to consider the %age increase in output, rather than the %age increase in efficiency. For example, the article suggests a lift from 22-24% to 28.6%, so the smaller efficiency gain is 4.86%, but the increase in output is 4.86/24 x 100% = 20.25%.

For my 12 yr old panels, we could see by decade end, a 35% v's 15% comparison, so an increase in output of 133%.

[Joeboy]

Totally agree that the improvements are now small, but Perovskite catching up with silicon, and also being much cheaper is close to opening the doors to tandem PV (using Perovskite and Silicon). That means 30%(ish) effecient PV panels, and should rise to high 30%'s.

But .... the important part, is that the cheapness of perovskite should offset the cost complexity of producing a tandem cell, so the cost per Wp should remain the same, for example:

for a panel of a given dimension with say 400Wp mono-silicon (£200), could be 550Wp for the tandem panel (£275), so proportionatly the same cost, (prices are made up, by me, just as an example).

So you get a large increase in output for the same area/roof, plus because the panels only represent part of the install cost (perhaps 30% for roof mounted, and 50% for PV farm), [Edit - I had the 30 and 50 percent figures the wrong way around] you get the large energy increase, for a smaller increase in the total cost. [Just a thought, but those are CAPEX costs, I'm wondering if there is any increase in OPEX for a PV farm(?) so even greater reduction in generation costs.]

Also, we need to consider the %age increase in output, rather than the %age increase in efficiency. For example, the article suggests a lift from 22-24% to 28.6%, so the smaller efficiency gain is 4.86%, but the increase in output is 4.86/24 x 100% = 20.25%.

For my 12 yr old panels, we could see by decade end, a 35% v's 15% comparison, so an increase in output of 133%.

Interested to hopefully see decent efficiency panels going in at Derril Water. Ripple have spoken about the importance of ethics in the panel production they buy into. A lot going on there I think.