An international research team led by Monash University has developed a world-first solar cell that replaces rare, expensive metals with cheap tin oxide to dramatically lower production costs.

An international team of researchers, including experts from Monash University, has developed a world-first, commercially sized tandem solar cell that eliminates the need for a scarce and expensive metal.

The breakthrough… replaces costly indium-based oxide with abundant tin oxide. The new material costs just one per cent of the price of indium, achieving this dramatic cost reduction without sacrificing the solar cell’s performance.

(Tandem cells capture more of the solar spectrum by stacking multiple layers with different bandgaps.)