Perovskite crystals may represent the future of solar power

IT is commonly claimed, and also true, that enough sunlight falls on Earth in the course of an hour to meet a year’s worth of global power needs. Some of that sunlight is currently converted into electricity by arrays of solar panels: by the end of 2023, these panels covered almost 10,000 square kilometres of Earth’s surface, producing some 1,600 terawatt-hours of electricity, about 6% of that generated worldwide.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Sunny side up”

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The company’s successes are also showing up the agency’s failings

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