Yup, that’s terrible. PSC’s still have a long way to go and we need to find encapsulation technologies to extend their life more, but where they shine is that they should be dirt cheap. If they cost 1/4 of silicon based cells, but only last 1/2 as long, that’s still a massive improvement.
Wouldn't the energy used for manufacturing, shipping, gathering, and recycling twice as many solar panels outweigh the benefits? That's a lot of extra logistics to deal with
I feel like I should clarify because the article didn't do a good job at explaining: perovskite is a kind of structure, not a particular material. They have the generic formula ABX3 (where A and B are different kinds of cations and X is some kind of anion), although not everything with the formula is a perovskite.
Simple perovskites include some lead-containing materials like lead titanate, but also lead-free materials like barium or strontium titanate. And in general there are a lot of different kinds of perovskites, especially because some of the structural sites can be filled by small organic molecules instead of pure elements.
Edit: I think I was misreading the journal article before my edit (it's early I'm not awake yet lol). I had said it looks like they're using a lead-based perovskite but actually I can't tell what exactly they're using with a quick skim. The article is very review-y, the formula I thought they were using is from another paper. I'll have a more thorough look later.
Edit 2: It's a review paper, and the way it was described in the linked news article is kinda misleading. Its not specifically about this company's particular composition or architecture.
Adding from communist's comment, if they don't stay efficient very long, how easy are them to recycle? Apparently they use common materials, but does that necessarily means it's common to recycle?
It's a metal salt, basically. The best ones according to the review cited use lead and halides, with formamidinium, methylammonium or Cesium. So, pretty easy to recycle, you could turn it back into the original ingredients with basic electroplating.
Whatever packaging might be more of an issue, but that's implementation-specific.
They're okay for niche applications, but the use case is pretty narrow: situations where you want high efficiency solar harvesting, but only for a limited period (because the material degrades). Oh, and you can't use them for (say) cheap solar powered kids' trinkets, because they contain lead.