With perovskites having achieved conversion efficiency increases from 3.8% to 21% in a short period, Lux Research reported today that, "the efficiency question has been answered." While questions remain as to perovskite’s cost effectiveness and the "feasibility of real-world efficiencies," Lux reports that new partnership opportunities with universities are available.

The durability of perovskites, when exposed to real-world conditions, is also an ongoing concern with the technology, indicating the importance of encapsulation for perovskite PV applications.

Lux has presented its findings today in a new report, The Rise of Perovskites: Identifying Academic Partners to Work With.

"Demonstration of their [perovskites] potential for high performance by academic labs has caused research groups to consider spinning off start-ups, meaning companies need to consider opportunities now, Lux Research Associate and lead author Tyler Ogden notes.

The Lux report notes that opportunities for companies to partner with perovskite researchers still exist, including with Nam-gyu Park of Sungkyunkwan University and Yang Yang of University of California Los Angeles.

"The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are also promising developers," writes Lux.

Some early-stage companies have already established partnerships with perovskite developers. These include Australia’s Dyesol, which is partnering with organic PV pioneer Michael Grätzel at the Ècole Polytechnique Fédérale (EPF), and Oxford PV, which has teamed up with Henry Snaith at Oxford University. Poland’s Salue Technologies has links to the University of Valencia and Fron Materials, from the National Taiwan University.

In an interesting finding, Lux notes that Chinese researchers are leading the academic publication race in the perovskite field, while "more impactful" research has emanated from countries such as Israel, Switzerland, Singapore and the UK.

Perovskite tandem applications are particularly promising, with Lux noting a perovskite/CIGS tandem cell has achieved 21.7% efficiency. PERC pioneer Martin Green, from the University of New South Wales, is pursuing perovskite/crystalline silicon PV applications. A team from Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the EPF recently achieved 18% efficiency on a perovskite/heterojunction cell using a low-temperature process.

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