rare-earth-free solar cell breakthrough

[NoraBatty]

Apologies if spoken about elsewhere.

This should quiet some naysayers.

https://interestingengineering.com/ener ... solar-cell

[dan_b]

Perovskite-based solar cells have been in development for quite a while and is certainly a route to even cheaper panels - I think there's also been research into combining perovskite with traditional solar cells to improve the output per m2 even further.

I think the issue with perovskite has been its durability?

[NoraBatty]

Perovskite-based solar cells have been in development for quite a while and is certainly a route to even cheaper panels - I think there's also been research into combining perovskite with traditional solar cells to improve the output per m2 even further.

I think the issue with perovskite has been its durability?

Perovskite solar cells have had rare earth metals added to them to increase their durability for ages, because, as you rightly say, without it there is a significant issue.

Sheffield are developing a way to increase stability and durability and remove the need for rare earth metals whilst making an extremely slim extremely lightweight and possibly flexible panel, that can be put on all areas traditional heavy panels cannot go due to their weight.

Paper here
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/article ... c8ee03517b

Link to their other work, plus work on stability of perovskites here
https://epmm.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/photovoltaics

[Stan]

Perovskite-based solar cells have been in development for quite a while and is certainly a route to even cheaper panels - I think there's also been research into combining perovskite with traditional solar cells to improve the output per m2 even further.

I think the issue with perovskite has been its durability?

Just to be accurate, Oxford Photovoltaics began shipping this type of combined panel to the US in September 2024.