EuropeSwedish CIGS thin-film solar cells manufacturer Midsummer announced a four-terminal perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cell developed with researchers at Prof. Yang Yang's Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has reached an impressive 24.9% efficiency.
The cell consists of a top layer of wide bandgap perovskite cell and a bottom layer of Midsummer's CIGS cell. The project shows the feasibility of making a tandem cell on a breakthrough production-proven process developed at Midsummer and using Midsummer's flagship CIGS cells production machine, DUO. The production system can manufacture high-performance CIGS solar cells measuring 156 mm x 156 mm on a flexible stainless steel substrate. This form factor is ideally suited for the subsequent processing of perovskite films on the company's current CIGS product suite.
"Perovskite-CIGS tandem cells have great future potential and Midsummer's solar panel design has by far the best conditions for building a commercial product for this type of solar panel, e.g since it contains a diode between each solar cell," said Sven Lindström, CEO of Midsummer.
Pioneer Materials, Inc is another project participant who supplies compound sputtering targets used in Midsummer's novel processing for CIGS on stainless steel. Leon Chiu, President of the company, said: "Integrating Midsummer's production-proven CIGS processing with Yang's Lab tailored perovskite shows a clear path toward expanding the reach of BIPV by improving efficiency and lowering costs."
The group continues their collaboration in perovskite-CIGS tandem cell research. It is targeting to develop a two-terminal perovskite-CIGS cell that will be suitable for mass production and further enhance the competitiveness of the tandem cell.
Midsummer is committed to CIGS cell research and manufacturing. The company's CIGS products have been widely recognized in the industry. Over the past few months, it has partnered with multiple renowned roofing companies to distribute its products; and signed hundreds of megawatts of CIGS deals.
Prof. Yang Yang's Laboratory is working on solution-processable thin film electronic devices that include PV cells, digital memory units, light-emitting diodes and thin film transistors, pursuing the highest performance made at extremely low cost.
