Mono-crystalline Perovskite Photovoltaics toward Ultrahigh Efficiency?

For centuries, energy has played a key driving role in the evolution of human societal structure. Today, global society is facing a dilemma as the transition to new renewable energy sources is clearly required. On one hand, there is a deficiency in the availability of fossil fuels while the global energy demand is continuously growing (a yearly 2.3% ascension). On the other hand, there is rising concern about the use of fossil fuels in the face of global warming. Shifting from non-renewable energy sources toward sustainable clean energy, using technologies such as photovoltaics (PVs), represents a long-term solution. Currently the PV market is dominated by the silicon-based modules that provide reasonable performance but are relatively expensive and exhibit cost on the order of US$0.36 W−1. This cost is far from the 2030 SunShot target of US$0.05 kWh−1. Improving the efficiency will provide cost savings during installation and maintenance, while silicon PV efficiency has long been plateaued at values far lower than the theoretical limit. This has been the driving factor for the continuous search for innovative PV technologies exhibiting higher power-conversion efficiency (PCE) at lower cost.