Oxford PV, an Oxford-based solar technology firm, plans to begin manufacturing the world’s most efficient solar panels and become the first company to sell them to the public. The solar panels contain a crystal first discovered around 200 years ago, that helps the panels harness more of the sun’s energy.
According to Oxford PV, these solar panels can generate nearly a third more electricity than standard silicon-based solar panels. How? The panels are coated with a thin layer of a crystal material known as perovskite. The breakthrough could play a significant role in fighting the climate crisis by contributing to an increase in clean energy.
Perovskite absorbs different parts of the solar spectrum than traditional silicon, and as a result, coating the panels with the crystal leads to more energy generations and lower electricity costs overall. A silicon-only solar cell can covert around 22% of the available solar energy into electricity. However, in June 2018, Oxford PV’s perovskite-on-silicon solar cell reached a new world record of 27.3%.
Oxford PV’s panels will look different than silicon panels and may blend in better with rooftop slates. Traditional silicon panels are usually tinted blue, but the perovskite-coated panels will appear black.
In 1839, the mineral perovskite, sometimes referred to as the crystal calcium titanate, was first discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia by a Russian scientist named Gustav Rose. The research was carried out in further detail by Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski; thus, the mineral was named Perovskite.
Over the last decade, researchers all over the world have been racing to utilize the perovskite crystal structure to engineer chemical compounds that can generate more renewable energy at a cheaper cost. Since the silicon-based panels came out in the 1950s, solar technology has remained relatively the same, until now. Dr. Chris Case, Oxford PV’s chief technology officer, believes that using perovskite represents a “true change” for the technology.
Dr. Case explained:
Silicon has reached its culmination of capability. There are residual improvements to be made and the cost of production opportunities, but from a performance standpoint, it is at its efficiency limit. The perovskite material is something totally innovative for solar.
In 2010, the company received £100,000 of funding from the UK government. Not long after, Oxford PV attracted equity investments from the Chinese renewables giant Goldwind and Norwegian oil giant Equinor, Legal & General Capital.
Frank Averdung, the chief executive of Oxford PV, said:
There are other companies working on perovskite, of course, and these other companies will eventually have a commercial focus, but none of these companies has the same focus on the combination of silicon and perovskite, which we do.
Averdung notes that Oxford PV will get to take the lead on the first commercially available solar panels that use perovskite crystal to improve solar generation, before the company’s rivals. The company aims to be ready to sell the novel panels to the public within the next year.
