Cost Analysis of Perovskite Tandem Photovoltaics

Recently, metal halide perovskite photovoltaics (PV) are marching toward commercialization. The possibility for perovskite absorbers to be incorporated into multi-junction solar cells is also being discussed, which suggests alternative market entry. Although intensive investigations are being made on their technical feasibility, serious analysis on the cost of perovskite-based tandem modules is lacking. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of solar modules is often used to evaluate technoeconomic competitiveness. Here, we performed a detailed cost analysis on two perovskite-based tandem modules (the perovskite/c-silicon and the perovskite/perovskite tandem module) compared with standard multi-crystalline silicon and single-junction perovskite solar cells. We found that perovskite PVs (both single junction and multi-junction) are competitive in the context of LCOE if the module lifetime is comparable with that of c-silicon solar cells. This encourages further efforts to push perovskite tandem modules onto the market in the future.