The first shipment of the 72-cell panels for an unnamed utility-scale installation in the US marks its start of commercial deployment of a technology featuring proprietary perovskite-on-silicon solar cells, according to Oxford PV. The company has been developing and working to commercialise the technology featuring the calcium titanate oxide mineral since 2014. It recently reported it had set a module efficiency record of 26.9%.

Oxford PV says its first panels available on the market have a 24.5% module efficiency, ‘offering performance significantly above traditional silicon technology’. The panels are powered by perovskite-on-silicon cells produced at the company’s megawatt-scale pilot line in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany. It plans to scale production to GW scale at a future high-volume manufacturing site.

David Ward, CEO of Oxford PV, remarks: ‘The commercialisation of this technology is a breakthrough for the energy industry. High-efficiency technologies are the future of the solar industry, and that future is starting now. Solar innovation will allow us to faster electrify and decarbonise our transportation, homes and industries. With more electricity generation from the same area, perovskite technology is now helping utilities speed up this transition by offering more energy at a lower cost.’

Perovskite developments set to ‘revolutionise’ the solar sector

Meanwhile, a new report from Rethink Energy suggests that a perovskite ‘revolution’ could ‘slash costs and increase power output in every segment of the solar industry’. Its latest analysis predicts that perovskite solar modules will reach GW-scale manufacturing from 2028, taking over the entire industry by 2040.  

‘Today we see a constant stream of trial commercial shipments, and that tandem modules have reached parity with silicon on lifetime power output – with huge room for further upgrades on lifespan and efficiency,’ says Rethink Energy. ‘This means that solar’s price declines and quality improvements haven’t reached a plateau – the solar levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) is going to keep improving through 2040 and beyond.’

The market analyst suggests that while it may take many years of manufacturing expansions to catch up with the scale of the general solar industry, specific market segments will be transformed or even created by perovskites, in particular rooftop solar.

It predicts that tandem modules, combining silicon and perovskite layers to reach both higher efficiencies and higher lifetime power output values than conventional silicon can achieve, ‘will be big in the US’, with tariffs and subsidies such as those under the Inflation Reduction Act helping the new technology to be adopted in the face of China’s ultra-cheap products.  

Oxford PV is not the only supplier in this nascent market; its announcement above brings it into the company of Utmolight, Microquanta and Caelux, which have released trial products and first commercial sales this year, with more expected to follow in the next few months and in 2025, according to Rethink Energy.  

The market analyst also expects swift adoption of tandem modules in the ‘East Asian Periphery’ of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan because of their ‘very limited land availability which will force them to become early promoters of the building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) segment at scale’.

Rethink Energy also forecasts that tandems will ‘become the dominant form of solar manufacturing worldwide in the 2030s – replacing and assimilating the silicon industry’.

Meanwhile, the market analyst suggests that ‘single-junction perovskites on the other hand [will] bring something new to the table – a thin-film solar product that’s affordable’. It continues: ‘Where rival technologies like CIGS [copper indium gallium diselenide] never attained mass adoption, single-junction perovskites promise far lower production costs which will enable them to claim stakes in satellite power, device-integrated cells, but most importantly solar installations on facades and on non-load-bearing rooftops. That will change the game for distributed solar installations across the Commercial & Industrial (C&I), municipal, and residential segments.’