Prospects for market-specific design of Perovskite-Silicon tandem solar cells

TL;DR

This paper uses calibrated simulations to evaluate how geographic location and material properties influence the energy yield and cost-effectiveness of Perovskite-Silicon tandem solar cells, highlighting limitations of traditional analysis methods.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation-based approach to assess location-specific performance and degradation rates, improving design strategies for tandem solar cells.

Findings

Energy yield scales with top cell band gap across locations

Simulation predicts higher degradation rates than traditional analysis

Broader band gap range can achieve comparable costs

Abstract

The quest for optimal perovskite for tandem cell configurations is challenging as it involves several factors ranging from device level performance under field conditions to degradation rates and cost. Here, we first highlight the limitations of traditional detailed balance or Shockley-Queisser (SQ) analysis towards the design of Perovskite/Silicon tandem solar cells. Through well-calibrated numerical simulations, we evaluate geographic location-specific annual energy yield (EY) and quantify the influence of temperature-dependent material and transport parameters. Our results indicate that the EY scales in a near-identical manner with the top cell band gap(EgT) for various geographic locations. In comparison to SQ analysis, our simulations predict a twofold relaxation in the target degradation rates at which perovskites over a broad range of band gaps could yield a comparable levelized cost of Energy (LCOE). These insights are of broad interest for the development of perovskite materials, and test protocols to evaluate the stability of Perovskite-Silicon tandem solar cells.