Solar cell types: silicon, perovskite and tandem

How do crystalline silicon, perovskite and tandem solar cells compare on efficiency, durability, commercial status and main limitations?

This table sets crystalline silicon, perovskite-silicon tandems, single-junction perovskites and artificial leaves side by side on four dimensions. Lab results, certified figures and company claims are typed separately, and cells without a reliable public figure are left empty rather than estimated.

Solar cell types: silicon, perovskite and tandem. Each cell shows a value, how well it is evidenced, and its sources.
Option	Record efficiencyPower conversion efficiency (%) of the reported cell or module, with area, certifier and year where stated. Solar cells are measured under simulated sunlight; artificial leaves report solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (%).	Stability or lifetime evidenceHow long devices have kept their performance: test duration in hours or years, and whether the test was in the lab, under simulated light, or outdoors.	Commercial statusWhether products are sold or shipped, and at what scale, as stated by a company or a review article.	Main limitationThe most important barrier named in the cited sources. Qualitative; no units.
Crystalline silicon	27.81% for a heterojunction interdigitated back contact (HIBC) cell, certified by ISFH per LONGi (announced April 2025; area not stated).Reported, unverified[1]	No reliable public figure	No reliable public figure	Single-junction cells have a theoretical limit of 33.7% (Shockley-Queisser), which perovskite-silicon tandems have now exceeded.Demonstrated[4]
Perovskite-silicon tandem	34.85% cell, NREL-certified per LONGi (announced April 2025; area not stated); 28.9% certified on 60 cm² (Artuk et al., 2025).Reported, unverified[1][2]	Companies have promised 80% efficiency retention after 25 years; the MRS Bulletin review says the next two or three years will be needed to demonstrate these promises.Reported, unverified[4]	Oxford PV announced on 5 September 2024 that it had started commercial sales with a first shipment of 72-cell tandem panels rated at 24.5% module efficiency, to a US-based customer (company-reported).Reported, unverified[3]	Scale-up and durability: manufacturing, long-term stability and field-performance prediction are still open needs (Aydin et al., 2024).Proposed[5]
Perovskite single-junction	No reliable public figure	No reliable public figure	No reliable public figure	The MRS Bulletin review covers perovskite cells generally, not single-junction devices. It says stability issues are still under investigation and that the next two or three years will test companies' reliability promises.Proposed[4]
Solar-to-hydrogen artificial leaf	11.2% solar-to-hydrogen for a 16 cm² module, unbiased, under 1-sun illumination (Hansora et al., 2025).Demonstrated[6]	140 h for 1 cm² photoelectrodes (Hansora et al., 2025); over 520 h for a BiVO4 photoanode under AM 1.5G illumination (Liu et al., 2025). No long-term outdoor module data appears in the sources opened.Demonstrated[6][7]	Liu et al. report a scale-up to 441 cm² tested in natural sunlight. The sources opened describe research devices and no commercial product.Demonstrated[6][7]	Efficiency is reported at two scales and conditions: 8.4% for a standalone artificial leaf, and 2.7% for a 441 cm² leaf in natural sunlight.Demonstrated[7]

Solar cell types: silicon, perovskite and tandem. Each cell shows a value, how well it is evidenced, and its sources.

Option

Record efficiencyPower conversion efficiency (%) of the reported cell or module, with area, certifier and year where stated. Solar cells are measured under simulated sunlight; artificial leaves report solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (%).

Stability or lifetime evidenceHow long devices have kept their performance: test duration in hours or years, and whether the test was in the lab, under simulated light, or outdoors.

Commercial statusWhether products are sold or shipped, and at what scale, as stated by a company or a review article.

Main limitationThe most important barrier named in the cited sources. Qualitative; no units.

Crystalline silicon

27.81% for a heterojunction interdigitated back contact (HIBC) cell, certified by ISFH per LONGi (announced April 2025; area not stated).Reported, unverified[1]

No reliable public figure

Single-junction cells have a theoretical limit of 33.7% (Shockley-Queisser), which perovskite-silicon tandems have now exceeded.Demonstrated[4]

Perovskite-silicon tandem

34.85% cell, NREL-certified per LONGi (announced April 2025; area not stated); 28.9% certified on 60 cm² (Artuk et al., 2025).Reported, unverified[1][2]

Companies have promised 80% efficiency retention after 25 years; the MRS Bulletin review says the next two or three years will be needed to demonstrate these promises.Reported, unverified[4]

Oxford PV announced on 5 September 2024 that it had started commercial sales with a first shipment of 72-cell tandem panels rated at 24.5% module efficiency, to a US-based customer (company-reported).Reported, unverified[3]

Scale-up and durability: manufacturing, long-term stability and field-performance prediction are still open needs (Aydin et al., 2024).Proposed[5]

Perovskite single-junction

No reliable public figure

The MRS Bulletin review covers perovskite cells generally, not single-junction devices. It says stability issues are still under investigation and that the next two or three years will test companies' reliability promises.Proposed[4]

Solar-to-hydrogen artificial leaf

11.2% solar-to-hydrogen for a 16 cm² module, unbiased, under 1-sun illumination (Hansora et al., 2025).Demonstrated[6]

140 h for 1 cm² photoelectrodes (Hansora et al., 2025); over 520 h for a BiVO4 photoanode under AM 1.5G illumination (Liu et al., 2025). No long-term outdoor module data appears in the sources opened.Demonstrated[6][7]

Liu et al. report a scale-up to 441 cm² tested in natural sunlight. The sources opened describe research devices and no commercial product.Demonstrated[6][7]

Efficiency is reported at two scales and conditions: 8.4% for a standalone artificial leaf, and 2.7% for a 441 cm² leaf in natural sunlight.Demonstrated[7]

What the table shows

Efficiencies in this table are 34.85% for a perovskite-silicon tandem cell, 28.9% for a 60 cm² tandem device, 27.81% for a silicon HIBC cell, 11.2% for a 16 cm² artificial leaf module, and 8.4% and 2.7% for artificial leaves at different scales. They are measured on different areas and under different conditions.
Durability evidence in these sources is at cell or component level, in the tests the papers report. None of the sources opened reports a multi-year outdoor record for a full device.
Commercial status is recorded only for perovskite-silicon tandem modules, from a company announcement. The sources opened do not state commercial status for crystalline silicon or for artificial leaves.
The main limitation named in each row differs: the single-junction theoretical limit for silicon, scale-up and durability for tandems, long-term stability for perovskite cells in general, and efficiency reported at two scales for artificial leaves.

Read with care

Figures come from research devices, certified measurements, company announcements and review articles with different areas, certifiers and test conditions, so they are not directly comparable.
Several figures are company-reported (LONGi, Oxford PV) and are shown as reported_unverified until independently checked.
An empty cell means no reliable public figure was found in the sources opened for this comparison; it does not mean no figure exists.
Artificial leaf results measure hydrogen from water, not electricity, so they cannot be read as a direct substitute for solar panel output.

Sources

company announcement
LONGi Sets Dual World Records in Solar Cell Efficiency for HIBC and Tandem Technologies
LONGi Green Energy Technology, 22 Apr 2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
peer reviewed paper
60 cm² perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with an efficiency of 28.9% by homogeneous passivation
Kerem Artuk, Aleksandra Oranskaia, Deniz Turkay et al.. Nature Communications (Springer Nature), 30 Sept 2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
company announcement
20% more powerful tandem solar panels enter commercial use for the first time in the US
Oxford PV, 5 Sept 2024. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
review article
Stability and reliability of perovskite photovoltaics: Are we there yet?
K. T. Tanko, Z. Tian, S. Raga et al.. MRS Bulletin, 18 Mar 2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
review article
Pathways toward commercial perovskite/silicon tandem photovoltaics
E. Aydin, T. G. Allen, M. De Bastiani et al.. Science (AAAS), 12 Jan 2024. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
peer reviewed paper
Scalable and durable module-sized artificial leaf with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency over 10%
Dharmesh Hansora, Rashmi Mehrotra, Eunseo Noh et al.. Nature Communications, 6 May 2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
peer reviewed paper
A standalone bismuth vanadate-silicon artificial leaf achieving 8.4% efficiency for hydrogen production
Boyan Liu, Xin Wang, Yingjuan Zhang et al.. Nature Communications, 21 Mar 2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.