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Third-generation solar cell technology is advancing rapidly. An engineering research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has achieved a breakthrough in the field of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells (TSCs), focusing on addressing challenges that include improving efficiency, stability and scalability.

The team has conducted a comprehensive analysis of TSC performance and provided strategic recommendations, which aim to raise the energy conversion efficiency of this new type of solar cell from the current maximum of approximately 34% to about 40%.

The team hopes to accelerate the commercialization of perovskite/silicon TSCs through industry-academia-research collaboration, while aligning with the nation’s strategic plan of carbon peaking and neutrality and promoting the development of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence through renewable energy.

The research team comprises leading scholars including Prof. Li Gang, Chair Professor of Energy Conversion Technology and Sir Sze-yuen Chung Endowed Professor in Renewable Energy, and Prof. Yang Guang, Assistant Professor, both of the PolyU Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

They conducted a critical review of the challenges and future prospects of perovskite/silicon TSCs titled “Towards efficient, scalable and stable perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells,” which has been published in the journal Nature Photonics.

Tackling stability and manufacturing challenges

“While lab-scale devices have shown impressive efficiency advancement, further efforts are needed to improve their reliability, including minimizing efficiency losses from small-area devices to large-area modules,” said Prof. Gang. “Special focus should also be given to ensuring that the manufacturability of materials and methods aligns with industrial standards.”

To address these issues, Prof. Guang and the team highlighted several critical technical challenges. First, the intrinsic instability of perovskite materials under environmental stresses such as moisture, oxygen, ultraviolet light and thermal fluctuations remains a major challenge. Second, translating tandem devices to commercial-scale modules requires overcoming hurdles related to uniformity, defect control and large-area fabrication.

Although preliminary outdoor testing of perovskite/silicon TSCs has been conducted, certified data on their long-term reliability remain scarce. To better assess the actual lifetime and commercial potential of these cells, the researchers recommend rigorous accelerated stability testing based on standardized procedures outlined by the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Additionally, while perovskite raw materials are relatively low-cost, the use of rare elements and heavy metal lead in most cell designs raises significant environmental and regulatory concerns. The research therefore advocates for the development of sustainable alternatives, along with efficient recycling or lead sequestration strategies to enable viable commercialization.

Promoting industry-academia-research collaboration

The PolyU team advocates for industry-academia-research collaboration through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates material science, device engineering and economic modeling to advance this promising photovoltaic technology. “The development of efficient and reliable perovskite/silicon TSCs must address these remaining scientific challenges to achieve lower levelized electricity costs,” said Prof. Guang.

“The team hopes this research will facilitate the transition of the technology from laboratory studies to commercial fabrication, while closely aligning with the nation’s strategic plan of carbon peaking and neutrality. By providing a stable supply of high-efficiency renewable energy, we aim to deliver green and reliable power support for high-energy-consuming industries such as artificial intelligence, thereby helping to achieve a low-carbon transformation of the energy structure.”

By using two propellers that rotate in opposite directions, a ship can use less energy to move forward. New knowledge means that more ships can use the technology, including Hurtigruten’s Sea Zero project for its coastal cruise ships.

SINTEF has now designed and manufactured new measuring equipment for model testing of contra-rotating propellers. This could be good news for many large ships.

“We see that propulsion efficiency increases when we utilize some of the energy lost from the front propeller at the same time as the rear propeller gets better water flow. This can provide more than 10% better efficiency compared to conventional propellers,” says Øyvind Rabliås, a researcher at SINTEF.

Although contra-rotating propellers are not new, they are still rarely used on commercial ships. The reason has been their cost and more complicated design than traditional layouts. That may be changing now.

“Together with our research partners, we’ve spent a lot of time on understanding and developing solutions for this. Now we believe that the technology is mature and ready for wider use,” says Jahn Terje Johannessen. He is a senior hydrodynamicist at Brunvoll, a leading provider of propulsion and maneuvering systems.

Good test results

SINTEF’s new measurement system was developed when Hurtigruten decided to use contra-rotating propellers for its zero-emission cruise ship in the Sea Zero project. The goal is an emission-free Hurtigruten ship with a sustainable and circular solution by 2030.

Contra-rotating propellers have significantly better efficiency than today’s propeller systems.

“This design simply means that we need less energy to achieve the same speed compared to conventional propellers. Brunvoll’s design is also more efficient than the contra-rotating propellers that exist today,” says Gerry Larsson-Fedde, chief operating officer at Hurtigruten.

From drawing board to reality

A broad interdisciplinary team at SINTEF Ocean, from technicians and instrumentation engineers to design experts and researchers, has developed the new measuring equipment for model testing contra-rotating propellers. Together, they arrived at a solution that is well suited for self-propulsion tests.

Two dynamometers, which are instruments used to measure force in rotating systems, have also been developed.

“One version is suitable for integrating into ship models that are tested in the Towing Tank, meaning that it is built into the model, and the other version is used in open water tests and in cavitation tests,” says Rabliås.

The system has already tested Brunvoll’s propeller system for Hurtigruten. The results provided valuable insight into the system’s performance and helped identify the most efficient propulsion solution for further development.

“It was an added bonus for Brunvoll that the project is so versatile. We have a lot of different industrially relevant issues in our work to create a demonstrator,” says Johannessen.

Hurtigruten is also very pleased to have its ground-breaking ship tested.

“It’s fantastic for us that we can test all the parts of the Sea Zero design at such a professional and advanced laboratory as SINTEF has. Contra-rotating propellers are new to us, and they are not common on ships either. That’s why it is so important for us to be able to thoroughly test the ship design in the cavitation tunnel. Then we’ll know that it will work in practice,” says Larsson-Fedde.

Some challenges too

Propulsion efficiency is increased by recovering part of the energy loss from the front propeller and by better inflow to the rear propeller. That is why it is possible to achieve more than a 10% increase compared to conventional propellers. However, contra-rotating propellers require a complex shaft-in-shaft system.

“The design process is also more complicated than for conventional propellers, both because of complex flow phenomena and the larger number of parameters that need to be adjusted, compared to one propeller. This applies to both the diameter ratio and the propeller’s revolution ratio between the two propellers, for example,” says Rabliås.

It will be exciting to follow the developments in the future for Hurtigruten as well.

“The goal of Sea Zero is to design the world’s most energy-efficient ship, and in that quest we have to leave no stone unturned. The propulsion itself uses a lot of energy, and so contra-rotating propellers are very exciting for us to look at,” says Larsson-Fedde.