UNSW and UtmoLight Set 23.5% Efficiency Record for Large-Area Perovskite Solar Module

Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, working with Chinese perovskite module maker UtmoLight, have achieved a certified stabilized power conversion efficiency of 23.5% on a 676-square-centimetre perovskite solar submodule, the university said on October 7, 2026. The result, 0.6 percentage points above the previous benchmark for that module size, was reported for a 30cm-by-30cm device, a scale far closer to the panels used on rooftops and in solar farms than the postage-stamp-sized cells typically used to chase efficiency records.

Closing the Gap Between Lab Cells and Real Panels

Perovskite solar cells have drawn years of attention for their potential to combine low manufacturing costs with high efficiency, and small-area lab cells have pushed that promise further in 2026: Chinese developers Huarou PV and SolaEon have each reported certified single-junction perovskite efficiencies above 27.8%, according to National PV Industry Measurement and Testing Center certification cited by pv-magazine. Those results, however, were measured on devices smaller than 0.1 square centimetres, roughly the size of a fingernail clipping.

Efficiency measured on such tiny cells rarely survives the jump to a usable module. Interconnections between individual perovskite cells, non-uniform coating across a larger surface, and losses at the module edges all take a toll as the active area grows. UNSW’s 676cm² result, certified on a module roughly 9,000 times larger in area than the current record-holding lab cells, is aimed squarely at that scaling problem rather than at the absolute efficiency ceiling.

Removing a Layer to Fix a Manufacturing Bottleneck

The team, led by Scientia Professor Xiaojing Hao of UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, said the gain came from reworking how the cell’s hole-selective contact is formed. Conventional perovskite cells rely on a nickel oxide layer deposited separately to transport positive charge carriers out of the device. UNSW’s design eliminates that layer, instead allowing the hole-selective contact to form directly during fabrication of the device stack.

According to the university, dropping a discrete processing step is significant for a technology whose commercial case rests partly on being cheaper and faster to manufacture than silicon. Removing a coating step also reduces one source of the non-uniformity that erodes efficiency as module area increases, which the researchers said was central to reaching 23.5% at nearly 700cm² rather than at sub-1cm² scale.

“For us, this is not only about setting another efficiency record,” Hao said. “It is about developing materials and device concepts that continue to perform when they are translated from laboratory cells to industrially relevant areas.”

Next Stop: A Full-Size Panel, at a Lower Efficiency Target

UNSW said the team’s next step is to scale the design up again, to a full-size 2.8-square-metre module comparable to a standard rooftop solar panel. The target there is 18-19% efficiency, notably lower than the 23.5% achieved on the submodule, underlining how much efficiency is still lost as perovskite devices grow from a lab-bench sample toward the dimensions a roofing contractor or utility-scale developer would actually install.

The university was explicit that the technology is not yet ready for commercial rooftops. UNSW said further work is needed on efficiency, reproducibility and long-term stability before perovskite modules at this scale can be widely deployed. Perovskite materials have historically degraded faster than silicon under heat, humidity and UV exposure, and bankable multi-decade warranties, of the kind that underpin silicon’s dominance of the solar market, have yet to be demonstrated at scale for perovskite products.

UtmoLight, the Wuxi-based manufacturer that partnered with UNSW on the submodule, has separately reported commercial-scale perovskite module efficiencies in the low-20% range in recent years as it builds out production lines, placing the new 23.5% figure within the band the company has been pushing toward for pilot manufacturing rather than treating it as a one-off laboratory curiosity.

Australia’s grid operator has separately flagged how fast wind, solar and storage are already scaling even without a perovskite contribution: AEMO reported a record 9.1 GW of new renewables and storage capacity added in the past financial year. Any commercial perovskite module would compete for a share of that build-out against silicon panels and against battery chemistries such as the sodium-ion batteries now reaching commercial maturity on the storage side of the same projects.

Why the Module Number Matters More Than the Cell Number

For the solar industry, the submodule-versus-cell distinction is not a technicality. Developers and utilities buy modules, not isolated cells, and a technology’s bankability depends on efficiency, cost and degradation rates holding up at the module and array scale. A 27%-plus lab cell has limited near-term relevance to project economics if module-scale output stalls in the high teens. UNSW’s result is a data point in favor of perovskite eventually reaching commercial relevance at scale, but the university’s own roadmap, targeting high-teens efficiency on a full panel, shows that gap has narrowed rather than closed.

No independent commercialization timeline was given for when UtmoLight or another manufacturer might bring a product built on this specific cell architecture to market.

Sources

• UNSW Sydney, press statement reported via pv-magazine Australia, “UNSW researchers achieve 23.5% efficiency record for large-scale perovskite PV submodule,” October 7, 2026 — efficiency figure, module dimensions, Hao quote, next-step target.
• pv-magazine, “UNSW researchers achieve 23.5% efficiency record for large-scale perovskite PV submodule,” October 7, 2026 — independent editorial confirmation of the UNSW/UtmoLight result.
• pv-magazine, “Chinese startup claims record-breaking 27.87% efficiency for single-junction perovskite solar cell,” January 28, 2026 — comparator lab-cell efficiency and device area, NPVM certification.

Illustrative image. Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source