Research

Researchers at the University of New South Wales have achieved a record-setting power conversion efficiency with solar cells made from antimony chalcogenide, an emerging PV material regarded as a strong candidate for next-generation solar technology.

Researchers in China developed a novel two dimensional seeding agent to regulate crystallisation in a 1.80-eV wide-bandgap perovskite film. A perovskite-silicon tandem device made with the resulting optimised subcell achieved an efficiency of 31.13%, outperforming a control device.

The Australian government will pump almost $25 million into a national solar panel recycling program in a bid to reduce landfill and recover valuable metals and minerals that can support the renewable energy transition.

University of New South Wales researchers found that some POE encapsulants can trigger severe corrosion in TOPCon solar modules, causing up to 55% power loss under damp-heat conditions. Their study highlights that module reliability depends on the exact encapsulant formulation, not just the polymer type.

JinkoSolar has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with XtalPi, an “AI for Science” platform company, to pursue high-throughput R&D on perovskite-crystalline-silicon tandem solar cells using an AI platform and quantum-physics-based models.

UNSW researchers boosted TOPCon solar cell efficiency by locally thinning the rear poly-Si layer, reducing parasitic absorption while preserving wafer integrity. The champion cell built with this approach achieved 25.10% efficiency with improved bifaciality and maintained strong passivation.

UNSW researchers developed an experimentally validated model linking UV-induced degradation in TOPCon solar cells to hydrogen transport, charge trapping, and permanent structural changes in the passivation stack. They show that thicker aluminum oxide layers significantly improve UV resilience by limiting hydrogen migration, offering clear guidance for more robust TOPCon designs.

University of Newcastle researchers have developed a new separation technique that employs the same crushing and flotation principles used in mineral processing to recover more than 97% of silver from end-of-life solar panels.

Trina Solar says new certified results in perovskite-crystalline silicon tandem cells and modules demonstrate progress toward industrial-scale next-generation PV.

The research group led by Professor Martin Green has not published yet Version 67 of the solar cell efficiency tables, due to production delays. Green, however, has agreed to comment on some of the results to be added in the upcoming edition.