Commercializing Perovskite Photovoltaics

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite submissions to a Special Issue of the open access journal Photonics on the area of “Commercializing Perovskite Photovoltaics”. Over the last decade, perovskite solar cells have attracted significant attention due to their steady increase in power conversion efficiency, abundance and low-cost constituent materials, and versatile fabrication processes (including many low-cost processes). Startup companies in perovskite solar cells have already begun commercializing this potentially revolutionary photovoltaic technology, although efforts could be sped up with new breakthroughs in the field. The most dominant photovoltaic technology in the current industry is crystalline silicon, with the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) taking the largest share of the market. The average selling price of crystalline silicon modules is already trending toward less than US $0.20/W. For perovskite solar cells to compete, they will require low-cost manufacturing processes to produce perovskite solar modules below this price. Therefore, we welcome research on low-cost and scalable perovskite solar cell fabrication methods. Alternatively, perovskite-based tandem and multijunction solar cells have the potential to exceed the Shockley–Quiesser thermodynamic limit to achieve higher power conversion efficiency, making them more appealing for commercialization. These may include pairing with existing photovoltaic technologies such as silicon, copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS), organic, quantum dot, or even low-bandgap perovskite solar cells. Another alternative could be niche applications such a flexible and lightweight perovskite solar modules for (1) portable electronic devices including smartphones and displays, (2) vehicles, drones, and aircraft, (3) wearable textiles, and many others. The road to commercializing perovskite photovoltaics would require careful study into their technoeconomic feasibility, energy yield (including field testing), as well as IEC testing and certifications. Finally, long-term stability and non-toxicity have been continuous discussion points for perovskite photovoltaics; therefore, any new ideas or improvements on these topics would be most welcome.

We would like to invite original papers and perspectives/reviews specifically on:

• Deposition methods and processes suited to large-area fabrication of perovskite solar cells. This may include but not be limited to solution processes such as blade coating, slot-dye coating, dip-coating, roll-to-roll printing, or other commercial techniques such as thermal evaporation, chemical vapor deposition, sputtering, and atomic layer deposition;
• New perovskite materials including 2D/3D, inorganic, double-, and chalcogenide- perovskites that may aid in long-term stability;
• New developments in other functioning layers in the perovskite solar cell stack, including hole/electron transport materials, transparent conductive oxides, recombination/tunnel junctions, buffer layers, and passivation layers or methods;
• Non-toxic, Pb-free perovskite variants and new ideas (e.g., recycling) that would make perovskite solar cells more appealing to the market;
• Tandem and multijunction devices, including perovskite–silicon, perovskite–CIGS, perovskite–perovskite, perovskite–OPV, perovskite–quantum dot, and combinations thereof;
• Niche applications, including flexible and lightweight perovskite solar cells;
• Technoeconomic, energy yield, machine learning, and other modeling studies on the feasibility of commercializing perovskite photovoltaics;
• IEC certifications and testing such as IEC 61215, IEC 61646 and more.

Dr. Terry Chien-Jen Yang
Dr. Rui Sheng
Dr. Faiazul Haque
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• photovoltaics
• perovskite solar cells
• commercialization
• industry, solution processing
• low cost, tandem, and multijunction
• long-term stability
• non-toxic Pb-free, flexible
• lightweight
• technoeconomic analysis
• IEC testing