Bill Gates is among backers of renewable energy startups betting a 200-year-old mineral find, perovskite, will inspire a breakthrough in solar power efficiency.
In Europe, Oxford PV is also planning to start making tandem modules. A spinoff from Oxford University, it claims a 28% efficiency for tandems and says it's developing a multi-layered cell with 37% efficiency. The company is building a solar cell factory in Brandenburg, Germany, but it has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and supply-chain snags.
"Perovskite is a disruptive material without disrupting the business model — the entrenched capacity to manufacture based on silicon," says Oxford PV CTO Chris Case. "Our product will be better at producing lower-cost energy than any competing solar technology." Martin Green, a solar cell researcher at the University of New South Wales in Australia, believes silicon-based tandem cells will be the next big step forward in solar technology. But he cautions that they are not known to work well enough outside the lab. Perovskite materials can degrade when exposed to moisture, a problem with which researchers have claimed some success.
"Onsite power generation and consumption will be very beneficial for society," says Yukihiro Kaneko, general manager at Panasonic's Applied Materials Technology Center. "For Japan to achieve its decarbonization goal, you would need to build 1,300 ballpark-sized mega-solar projects every year. That's why we think building solar into windows and walls is best."
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