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tonyPick [soylentnews.org] writes:

Hackaday has an article on progress in developing more efficient Perovskite Solar Cells [hackaday.com].

A recent development at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may lead to even more efficient perovskite cells. Researchers found that certain crystal structures had a much higher efficiency than other structures. The problem now is figuring out how to produce the crystals to increase the prevalence of that structure.

The article links to details from MIT technology review [technologyreview.com], and also this Chemical & Engineering news video [youtube.com] on the process involved when making cells.

Perovskite cells are particularly interesting since they can be manufactured using a relatively simple chemical process, however as well as the efficiency problem they are prone to rapid degradation.

Researchers hope to solve the stability problem and produce highly efficient solar films using this technology. They envision light, transparent, and cheap solar cells that would be as easy to apply as wallpaper, covering any surface that has sun exposure.

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