Report: Perovskite modules reach 22.0% efficiency at meter scale

According to a report, two solar systems watched the same sky from March through May 2026 at a large ground-mounted plant: 1 megawatt of perovskite modules beside 3.5 megawatts of TOPCon silicon, a high-efficiency silicon technology. The smaller perovskite system reportedly generated more electricity per unit of capacity in every monitored month, with gains of 3.42%, 3.79%, and 5.81% over silicon.

The team behind that reported result came from Nanjing University and Renshine. Led by assistant professor Xiao Ke and professor Hairen Tan, the researchers built 0.72-square-meter commercial-size modules with a reported certified full-area efficiency of 22.0% and steady-state output of 158.4 watts. The report says their work was published online in Nature on August 12, 2026.

The technical obstacle was the module’s surface. Perovskite cells can perform strongly in the laboratory, but common ammonium-based halide treatments become difficult to use over large areas: they are sensitive to humidity and depend heavily on the exact properties of the film surface. The researchers used a solvent mixture of 2-methoxyethanol, 1,3-dioxolane, and dimethyl sulfoxide, combined with vacuum-assisted crystallization, to form a more suitable protective layer before applying organic lead salts. That reportedly made passivation more uniform across the module.

The durability numbers are stark. In testing at 85% relative humidity or 85 degrees Celsius, traditionally treated modules lost 39% of their efficiency after 1,300 hours. Modules using lead-carboxylate passivation lost 2%. They showed almost no efficiency loss after 300 thermal cycles from minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius and passed the full IEC61215/IEC61730 reliability sequences.

Concretely, the reported advance gives perovskite solar a stronger case for hot, bright sites: the field advantage over silicon widened as temperatures and light intensity rose. The earlier large-area work from the same team had reached 17.2% certified efficiency, so the new result closes a substantial part of the module-scale gap. The teams describe the reliability results as a step toward commercial adoption; the report does not provide a mass-production volume, price, or longer field history.