Breakthrough to make solar more affordable

Sunlight contains easily enough power to meet the world’s energy needs; the challenge for scientists is converting it into electricity cheaply.

At the moment the cheapest, most efficient way is to use silicon-based panels. Yet these still require costly high-tech factories to make and only convert about 15 per cent of the sun’s energy into electricity.

On the other hand perovskites, as the new class of materials are known, are far easier and cheaper to make, with some predicting they could ultimately reach efficiencies of 50 per cent. They can even be layered on top of regular solar panels, so that together they absorb greater wavelengths of sunlight than either material could capture alone.