Last year, solar generated more electricity worldwide than nuclear for the first time, with the gap rapidly increasing.
UNSW Sydney’s Scientia Professor Martin Green said Australia will be generating most of its electricity from solar by about 2032.
Green is currently helping to establish an independent field-testing facility at UNSW’s Water Research Laboratory in Manly Vale, where the newest solar tech – perovskite solar modules – will be subjected to durability testing under real-world conditions.
While these modules are already on the market, the expectation is that failed modules can simply be replaced as production scales and costs continue to fall.
“Silicon modules are routinely sold with warranties of 25 to 40 years,” Green said.
“While the perovskite modules offer similar warranties, the likelihood of a module surviving for that long is very small.”
Perovskites are a class of crystalline materials that can be stacked on top of silicon solar cells to harvest more sunlight and push solar performance further – the next generation of solar technology.
“The new technology performs impressively in a lab but is yet to survive for decades in the real world,” he said.
“Silicon, the workhorse of the global solar revolution, is now very efficient, but increasingly close to its limits.”
Can perovskites make the same leap silicon did from promising technology to reliable infrastructure?
This question is what shapes the field-testing facility.
Green said perovskite-on-silicon tandem cells are the most likely large-scale commercial pathway for next-gen solar technology.
“All the silicon manufacturers have their own perovskite-on-silicon programs,” he said.
When his group first began setting records with silicon cells, he insisted any claims be certified by recognised testing laboratories.
The facility will be able to install up to 160 modules, catering to all manufacturers and generations of products.
By comparing modules from different companies, the UNSW team hopes to identify which failure mechanisms are widespread and which are specific to individual designs.
“We’ll be able to provide an authoritative opinion about just how good the commercial ones are,” Green said.
“Once they fail in the field, we’ll find out why and provide that information back to the manufacturer.”