Silicon solar panels are hitting their limit. This UK lab is making perovskite the next big thing

Tucked away on the outskirts of Oxford, the solar R&D centre looks like any other drab industrial unit in the October sun. 

But for green energy enthusiasts, Oxford PV’s lab is as exciting as Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. 

Dozens of solar cells are dished out to scientists at the start of the day, who set to work experimenting: tweaking their composition, stress-testing them in climate chambers, and zooming in on microscopes to separate the good cells from the bad.                                

Their secret ingredient? Perovskite, a crystal structure that increases the efficiency of solar panels when overlaid on traditional silicon cells. 

Oxford PV, which evolved out of a University of Oxford research project and has a factory near Berlin, is leading the way on perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cell manufacturing.

It's in good company in the Oxford Pioneer Park, where experts are also hard at work on electric motors and nuclear fusion. 

Oxford PV is now reaping the benefits of being ahead of the curve on perovskite, with broad intellectual property rights and a deal with a US utility company in the bag.

No one needs convincing that the future features a great deal of solar energy. As well as being better for the climate and energy security, solar and wind are now the cheapest ways to add electricity generation in almost every country. 

But traditional silicon solar cells are bumping up against their efficiency limit of around 26 per cent sunlight converted into electrical energy.  

“We’re in the middle of the last wave of solar dying, whether that be in Europe due to Chinese competition or in the US due to the failure of some of the new thin-film PV companies,” Oxford PV CEO David Ward tells Euronews Green. 

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