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I. ABSTRACT
The upfront cost of solar power is an obstacle to its
adoption on residential scales. The drop in the price of silicon
solar cells has slowed in recent years. Relatively new (to the
solar field) materials called perovskites could help reduce the
per watt cost of solar panels. The most promising way is
through boosting efficiency of silicon cells by making tandem
cells. However, even with an optimistic price reduction of
50%, panels only make up a fraction of the total installed cost
of a solar power system. Without a similar drop in price of
other components of the cost, even a significant drop in the
cost of the panels will only have a small impact on the
adoption of solar power.
II. KEYWORDS
Solar, Perovskite, Solar Power, Low Cost, Solar Cell
III. INTRODUCTION
The cost of solar power for residential systems is key to
the adoption of solar power. Prices have been falling for years
as it does for all technology. Solar power systems are expected
to continue to fall in price as technology advances and
manufacturing increases. This paper will look at one of those
technological advances that could lower the cost of solar cells
in the future, perovskites. This paper will look to answer if
this technology could have enough of an impact on the cost of
the solar cells to significantly impact the total cost of
purchasing and installing solar power systems at a residential
scale.
Traditionally solar cells are made with silicon which has
dominated the solar market. Manufacturing costs for silicon
solar cells have fallen in the recent past making helping to
spread the adoption of solar power (Green, Ho-Baillie, &
Snaith, 2014). Silicon solar cells are also nearing the
theoretical limit of efficiency, 29.4%, (Werner et al., 2016).
Without another big breakthrough in manufacturing costs it is
unlikely to see a large drop in price for silicon solar cells but
rather a continued slow fall in prices as volumes increase. In
order to Perovskites are a material that could replace or work
in tandem with the traditional silicon used in solar cells.
Perovskites are promising because of many reasons but most
important for this paper is the fact that they are a cheap
material that is easy to fabricate.
Solar cells make up only a portion of the cost of a solar
power system. The system will also have other equipment