10th world record broken! Our team's leading the research on new thin-film photovoltaic technology

On March 25, a reporter learned from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that a team led by Meng Qingbo, a researcher at the institute, has once again achieved a performance breakthrough in novel thin-film copper zinc tin sulfide selenide (CZTSSe) photovoltaics. The battery’s authoritative certified efficiency has been raised to 16.6%, and the team has also completed the development of high-performance flexible batteries and modules. This marks the 10th time they have refreshed the world record in this field. China has taken global lead in the novel photovoltaic sector, and the technology has crossed a key threshold for industrialization.

At present, the global energy transition is accelerating. With deep-space exploration and upgrades to space infrastructure, major projects such as low-Earth-orbit satellite internet and space energy bases have put forward core requirements for solar-energy technologies: low cost, long service life, lightweight design, and resource sustainability. CZTSSe is made of common elements such as copper, zinc, tin, etc. It offers advantages including abundant resources, low cost, environmental friendliness, and resistance to space irradiation. Its all-thin-film stacking technology is expected to play an important role in large-scale energy applications on both the ground and in space in the future. However, due to challenges such as complex material defects, disordered atomic arrangements, and large internal energy losses, the development of CZTSSe photovoltaic technology has been hindered over the past decade.

For more than ten years, the Meng Qingbo team has focused on fundamental research and has precisely tackled key scientific issues such as material crystallization, atomic structure, and defect control. The team has developed an atomic vacancy strategy to guide the ordered return of copper and zinc atoms, thereby reducing defect activity and internal losses from the root cause. In 2022, the team took the lead in breaking through the 13% efficiency bottleneck. Since then, over the past three years, it has achieved stepwise cross-scale leaps to 14%, 15%, and 16% in succession, completing device scale-up and flexible module construction.

According to the development of thin-film photovoltaics, industrialization can be gradually advanced once efficiency reaches the 15%~16% range. With CZTSSe batteries already achieving 16.6% efficiency, together with their inherent advantages, they have the foundation for industrialization. In the future, once efficiency approaches 20% and module efficiency reaches 18%, and batch manufacturing is achieved, the related products’ advantages such as lightweight flexibility, foldable unfolding, and resource sustainability are expected to show broad development prospects in emerging application scenarios including portable energy systems, power supply for mobile equipment, and satellites, space energy platforms, and deep-space exploration. This is expected to become one of the important technological directions supporting the future development of novel energy systems and space energy. The team will further deepen fundamental research, advance technology development, and coordinate with all parties to accelerate the pace of industrialization, providing a China solution for the global clean energy system.

Source: Beijing Daily client

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