Crystalline silicon has been the king of solar for decades, but it is approaching its theoretical efficiency limit (roughly 29%). The industry is now looking at the next wave of innovation: **Perovskite and Tandem Solar Cells**.
Perovskites are a family of materials with a specific crystal structure that are excellent at absorbing light. They can be manufactured using simple chemistry, potentially at very low cost. However, their true power is unleashed when combined with silicon in a **”Tandem”** configuration.
In a Tandem cell, a top layer of perovskite captures high-energy blue light, while a bottom layer of silicon captures the lower-energy red light. This “stacking” allows the cell to harvest a much broader spectrum of sunlight than either material could alone. Laboratory efficiencies for tandem cells have already exceeded **30%**, smashing the limits of single-junction silicon.
The challenge now is stability—making perovskites last 25 years like silicon. But once solved, tandem technologies are expected to redefine high-efficiency, low-cost PV manufacturing for the next generation.
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