Light, flexible, efficient: Perovskite-based tandem solar cells

From the lab to the roof

07-May-2024 - All-perovskite tandem solar cells could soon pick up where silicon solar cells reach their limits. These highly efficient, lightweight and flexible cells have already proven themselves in the laboratory – now, Empa researchers are working on scaling them up and making them ready for the real ...

Electricity even in poor lighting conditions

2nd place for Empa spin-off Perovskia Solar

02-Jan-2023 - The Empa spin-off Perovskia Solar has been awarded second place at the Swiss Innovation Challenge, leaving more than 100 competitors behind. The prizes were presented by Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin. Perovskia Solar manufactures digitally printed, customizable solar cells that seamlessly ...

Turning streetwear into solar power plants

Ready-to-wear solar cells

23-Oct-2020 - Empa researchers succeeded in developing a material that works like a luminescent solar concentrator and can even be applied to textiles. This opens up numerous possibilities for producing energy directly where it is needed, i.e. in the use of everyday electronics. Our hunger for energy is ...

Technological breakthrough for cheaper lighting and flexible solar cells

EU project TREASORES finishes successfully

08-Mar-2016 - In November 2012, the TREASORES project (Transparent Electrodes for Large Area Large Scale Production of Organic Optoelectronic Devices) started with the aim of developing technologies to dramatically reduce the production costs of organic electronic devices such as solar cells and LED lighting ...

New EU project on the hunt for super-solar cell

«Sharc25» aims at 25% efficiency with thin-film solar cells

29-Jun-2015 - «Sharc25», a European research project launched in May, is setting out to develop extremely efficient thin-film solar cells for the next generation of more cost-effective solar modules. Eleven research partners from eight countries are part of the consortium, which is coordinated by the Centre ...

Understanding what makes a thin film solar cell efficient

07-Nov-2013 - For many years scientists and engineers have been trying to provide low-cost solar energy by developing a cheap solar cell that is both highly efficient and at the same time simple to build, enabling it to be mass produced. Now, the team led by Empa researcher Ayodhya N. Tiwari has made a major ...

Swiss researchers boost efficiency of flexible solar cells to new world record

Record efficiency of 18.7% for flexible CIGS solar cells on plastics

31-May-2011 - Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have further boosted the energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (also known as CIGS) to a new world record of 18.7% – a significant improvement over ...

Collecting the sun's energy

Novel electrode for flexible thin-film solar cells

26-Apr-2011 - The scarcity of raw materials and increasing usage of rare metals is making electronic components and devices more and more costly. Such rare metals are used, for example, to make the transparent electrodes found in mobile phone touchscreen displays, liquid-crystal displays, organic LEDs and ...

Empa grows 'sea urchin'-shaped structures: More efficient photocells thanks to nanostructured surfaces

02-Aug-2010 - Processes which lend materials new characteristics are generally complicated and therefore often rather difficult to reproduce. So surprise turns to astonishment when scientists report on new methods which not only produce outstanding results despite the fact that they use economically priced ...

Nanoribbons for graphene transistors

Materials for tomorrow's nanoelectronics

23-Jul-2010 - In the recent issue of Nature, scientists from Empa and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research report how they have managed for the first time to grow graphene ribbons that are just a few nanometres wide using a simple surface-based chemical method. Graphene ribbons are considered to be ...