A Polish physicist has developed an exceptional inkjet processing technique for perovskites, a new line of cost-effective solar cells made under low temperatures. Perovskites technology will reshape the accessibility of solar power for everyone.
Mohammad KhajaNazeeruddin, a faculty employee at Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology, said to be perovskite solar cells' potential could be utilized to address world energy poverty.
Solar panels coated with minerals are flexible, light, inexpensive, efficient, and come in a vast array of hues and degrees of transparency. The panels can be established on almost every surface like laptops, drones, cars, and buildings or to produce electricity even indoors.
Perovskite has occurred for a long time; it was first identified by Gustav Rose, a German mineralogist, while surveying the Ural Mountains and named the substance after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovskite.
After a few decades, integrating perovskite's atomic structure was made more accessible. Still, only in 2009 was it realized that perovskite could be used to make photovoltaic solar cells by Japanese researchers Tsutomu Miyasaka. In the beginning, processes were complicated, and they required ultra-high temperatures; glass was coated with perovskite because it could withstand extreme heat.
In 2013, while Malinkiewicz was still a Ph.D. student, she figured out a method to coat flexible foil with perovskites using the evaporation method. Later, Malinkiewicz invented an inkjet printing procedure that was cost-effective. As a result, mass production was made practicable, and the high temperature was no longer needed to coat things with a photovoltaic layer.
Saule, the company, co-founded by Malinkiewicz, is predicted to produce 40,000 square meters of the panel by the end of the year. Skanska, a Swedish construction group, evaluates the discussions on the facade of a building in Warsaw. The company also has a consenting partnership with Saule to use its solar cell technology in Europe projects.
Perovskites are shown to work even in places with less sunlight, and the technology is inching forward to creating energy-sufficient buildings. According to current estimates, the panel of 1.3 meters costs approximately 50 euros ($57), and the board would supply a day's energy required to power an office workstation.
