Solar Technology - Perovskite

As a potential consumer of residential solar panels, advancements in solar technology have been a topic of discussion for my family.   Advances in solar technologies which make solar panels more affordable and/or more efficient at converting solar power to electricity always spark my interest.   A recent article touts a leap forward in solar cell technology with the potential for producing solar cells that are durable, cost less to manufacture, and hopefully reduce the cost to consumers, without degrading performance.   These materials are categorized as perovskites.  
    Solar cell technology has been heavily researched for a long time.   One material in particular has been showing positive results for both efficiency and in reducing cost of manufacturing for solar cell materials.   The perovskite solar cells are one of the most promising technologies on the horizon for solar panels with a few potential drawbacks in the way.   In the article, A Flat-Out Major Advance for an Emerging Solar Cell Technology, the author suggests that this form of solar cell “can be manufactured using the same method as the cheapest silicon devices, without sacrificing energy-production efficiency.”   Although this technology has been around for quite some time, results from recent experiments have presented new applications for perovskite materials.   In silicon based solar cells, perovskites were used as a means to absorb photons1 because physicist had not considered the materials to be good conductors of electricity.   Scientist experimented with these materials to determine viability for use as an efficient, low cost thin-film solar cell.   During the experiments physicist from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom determined that the perovskite materials were “pretty good semiconductor1” and that the material was able to conduct electricity without the addition of a complex nanostructure.   The experiments demonstrated that the perovskite cells were just as efficient using the...