https://electrek.co/2024/08/09/oxford-scientists-are-generating-solar-power-without-panels/
Scientists at Oxford University are coating a new solar power-generating material onto objects such as rucksacks, cars, and mobile phones.
27% is just matching the efficiency of current solar panels though.
So unless it's significantly cheaper there may not be a point here.
One of the main advantages here is that this can be applied to almost any surface because of how thin it is.
From the article:
We can envisage perovskite coatings being applied to broader types of surfaces to generate cheap solar power, such as the roofs of cars and buildings and even the backs of mobile phones. If more solar energy can be generated in this way, we can foresee less need in the longer term to use silicon panels or build more and more solar farms.
Dang, too bad there aren't insanely smart engineers who have figured out how to make your little hand rectangle go brrrrr to figure out a way to make it work.
So put it on the case with one of those wireless charging coils in the case, or at absolute worst, a tiny, tiny connector that plugs into your USB-C port
But if you have to stack the layers to get the 27% efficiency then it's no longer thin. :)
It might not be as thin as before, but is several microns of thickness not thin?
It was nice if they gave more details about exactly how thick it is at 27% efficiency though.
I'll look around to see if I can find more information about it.
Edit: And by the way, I'm actually not aware of any 27% solar panels currently in production.
Other than the ones Ofxord PV has recently begun manufacturing (established by the same Prof. leading this research).
Just quoting the article:
"from around 6% to over 27%, close to the limits of what single-layer photovoltaics can achieve today."
But I guess it depends too on how many layers we're talking about which isn't specified.
You're misrepresenting what they say:
During just five years of experimenting with our stacking or multi-junction approach, we have raised power conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 27%, close to the limits of what single-layer photovoltaics can achieve today.
We believe that, over time, this approach could enable the photovoltaic devices to achieve far greater efficiencies, exceeding 45%.
"6% to over 27%" isn't the range of what they can achieve now. 6% efficiency was where the technology was at 5 years ago, and now they get 27%.
27% is the highest PV efficiency we have achieved with our first round of solar-electric generation. It has taken generations of reiteration to get there.
It's a really impressive feat for this new material to start at 27% efficiency. Of course it has drawbacks but everything does. I wonder if we'll be using perovskite based solar in 80 years