Comment by pjc50
1 year ago
"Harder to manufacture" is relative. The hope is that they would be easier, because they're not monocrystalline and don't require the high energy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_method to produce a semiconductor substrate. The paper (and the general "pitch" of perovskites) plans to use roll-to-roll printing on flexible substrates.
a-Si has been at or beyond this level of efficiency since the 90's and also does not require a Cz or FZ process.
It's encouraging to see progress but where perovskite thin films show potential is in an integrated mechanical stack application with silicon, where they can supplement each other's barely-double-digit efficiencies focusing on different parts of the spectrum to combine to reach something on par with traditional crystalline silicon, but thinner and with lower production costs.
Seeing thin film beat crystalline silicon is like seeing nuclear fusion become cost-effective. It's perpetually 10 years away, and has been since the 70's.