science
In 2025, Chinese manufacturer LONGi set a certified world record for a solar cell that stacks two different light-absorbing layers, reaching 34.85% efficiency, well above the roughly 27% ceiling of ordinary single-layer silicon cells.
This two-layer solar cell design is called a perovskite-silicon tandem cell. By stacking a perovskite crystal layer on top of conventional silicon, each layer absorbs a different part of the sunlight spectrum, letting the combined cell capture more total energy than a single silicon layer could alone, which is how LONGi's cell reached 34.85% efficiency, well above the roughly 27% ceiling of ordinary single-layer silicon cells.
Thin-film cadmium telluride cells and bifacial monocrystalline cells are both real solar technologies, but they rely on a single light-absorbing layer design rather than stacking two different materials together, so neither one describes this particular tandem approach.
Long-term durability under heat and humidity, rather than efficiency, is now considered the main hurdle these tandem cells must clear before they become common on ordinary rooftops.
science
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