What are the theoretical limits on the efficiency of various photovoltaic technologies?

When Japanese scientist Tsutomu Miyasaka first used perovskite photovoltaic cells to generate electricity in 2009, the efficiency was just 3.8 percent. Just a decade later, in 2019, the perovskite cells' performance soared to 25 percent.

In November 2021, the Helmholtz Center (HZB) in Berlin developed a perovskite tandem cell with a conversion efficiency of 29.8%, the highest perovskite cell conversion efficiency to date.

It is worth noting that this record exceeds the efficiency limit of the current most efficient heterojunction, TOPCon and other crystal silicon technologies, which will be a few streets away from other technology routes for thin film batteries.

What are the theoretical limits on the efficiency of various photovoltaic technologies?The theoretical limits of different technologies of crystalline silicon components are:
* Theoretical limit efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells: 29.43%;
* The maximum efficiency of ordinary monocrystalline silicon cells is 24.5% under ideal conditions;
* The maximum efficiency of HJT battery under ideal conditions is 27.5%;
* TOPCon batteries have a higher efficiency upper limit: 28.2%-28.7%.

It can be said that in terms of energy conversion efficiency, perovskite has knocked the crystal silicon cell, raising the photovoltaic energy to a new height.

From the theoretical limit, the theoretical maximum efficiency of single-layer perovskite cell can reach 31%, and the conversion efficiency of crystal silicon/perovskite double-layer can reach 35%, while the theoretical limit of three-layer perovskite cell may rise to more than 45%.

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