UNSW researchers have found that electron irradiation significantly degrades the bulk minority carrier lifetime of silicon solar cells, leading to up to a 60% drop in efficiency. The study identified vacancy-vacancy defects as the main radiation-induced defects affecting the cells. They emphasized the need to increase radiation tolerance in commercial space silicon solar cells, with p-PERC cells showing superior radiation tolerance compared to p-TOPCon cells. Front-junction architectures were found to perform better than rear-junction designs in terms of radiation damage. The findings were presented in the study "Electron radiation-induced degradation of silicon solar cells" published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, highlighting various degradation mechanisms and vulnerabilities in TOPCon solar cells.