Loose solar panels can be much more efficient what we know so far, but for that we need material that is both good and problematic. Japan It becomes fully involved in the making of perovskite plates, which are a great insight, but the only one, or at least not as we know it. There is a product that needs to change to bring out its maximum ecological potential.
The alarm has been raised Ignacio Martil de la Plazadoctor in physics and professor Electronics in the Complutense University of Madrid. Speaking to Xataka in 2021, he said that perovskites took ten years to follow the same path that silicon took fifty years.
The term perovskite implies a family of materials with a crystalline structure similar to that of calcium titanate. Its appeal from a theoretical point of view lies in the conversion of solar energy into electricity. Furthermore, they are notable because they can be manufactured with materials that are abundant in the Earth’s crust, such as carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen.
However, not everything is rosy, as the most efficient plates are those made of lead, a highly polluting chemical element. In fact, some European countries (such as Swiss) have decided to ban them permanently. The feasibility of replacing lead with another similar element has been investigated for years. The one that has a lot of ballots to achieve this is tin.
The problem is that solar cells containing it are not as competent as lead cells, because their efficiency is much lower.
The most efficient solar panels are about to arrive – and lead-free!
When perovskites became popular, many research groups went to work to develop an alternative technology that was lead-free, but just as effective. Some time ago some interesting data came from a research team from the Nanyang Technological University and the Agency for Scienceboth settings Singapore.
The Asian researchers published an article in the journal Nature energy which explains in detail how they managed to generate solar cells with lead-free perovskites and an efficiency of 24.1%.
It is a good start to think of new alternatives. While there are other projects that have achieved efficiencies of about 25.5% with perovskites and 29.5% with silicon tandem, the difference in this experiment is that it contains no lead.
Their action was to replace it with another material that many had not imagined until now: a compound made up of zinc and harmonium, among other substances. According to studies conducted, it is more effective than other components that have been worked with so far.
Lead-free solar panels can be efficient and this is proof
Once the opportunity to have solar panels Without lead, its makers face the challenge of finding a way to scale up this technology so that it is actually used in the production of solar cells for commercial applications.
This project is not the only one on the table. There are other similar ones that look very good and some may eventually come to fruition. What is at stake is the new generation solar panels.
What is clear is that perovskites are the best option when we talk about photovoltaic technologies. efficient and without lead they will be invincible. Its expansion is a fact. In fact the solar panels They are even used in caravans. In such a context, research is crucial. Its evolution is impressive!