This UK lab is making perovskite the next big thing
Lottie Limb
Sun 3 November 2024
Sun 3 November 2024
EURONEWS
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.
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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.
Perovskite-on-silicon: the next big solar breakthrough?
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.
There has been little to challenge the incumbent position of silicon in the last decade - which is often the minimum time that it takes for a new hard tech innovation to break through.
Founded in 2010, Oxford PV is only now seeing the commercial world wake up to the potential of perovskite-on-silicon, for which it achieved a world-record efficiency for a cell of 29.5 per cent in 2020.
Since then, there’s been what Ward describes as a “burgeoning” of companies in the perovskite silicon tandem space, who are mostly playing catch up.
“The tipping point is really quick, and it’s been true across the PV industry in all of the silicon generations,” adds Ward.
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.
Related
Will the British Library’s giant solar heat project inspire other public buildings to decarbonise?
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.
Perovskite-on-silicon: the next big solar breakthrough?
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.
There has been little to challenge the incumbent position of silicon in the last decade - which is often the minimum time that it takes for a new hard tech innovation to break through.
Founded in 2010, Oxford PV is only now seeing the commercial world wake up to the potential of perovskite-on-silicon, for which it achieved a world-record efficiency for a cell of 29.5 per cent in 2020.
Since then, there’s been what Ward describes as a “burgeoning” of companies in the perovskite silicon tandem space, who are mostly playing catch up.
“The tipping point is really quick, and it’s been true across the PV industry in all of the silicon generations,” adds Ward.
What is perovskite exactly and how does it work?
Perovskite refers to an organic mineral discovered in Russia in the 1800s, which was named after mineralogist Lev Perovski. It also describes this type of mineral’s crystal structure, which can contain various atoms.
Oxford PV’s perovskite is made by machines (keeping it cheap) and is a semiconductor material well-suited to harvesting sunlight, deputy chief technology officer Ed Crossland explains.
In a regular solar panel, silicon ingots are sliced into very thin wafers and spread out to cover the widest area. Metal contacts are then added that activate the silicon material. In total, around 60 cells are placed together to form the panel.
Perovskite refers to an organic mineral discovered in Russia in the 1800s, which was named after mineralogist Lev Perovski. It also describes this type of mineral’s crystal structure, which can contain various atoms.
Oxford PV’s perovskite is made by machines (keeping it cheap) and is a semiconductor material well-suited to harvesting sunlight, deputy chief technology officer Ed Crossland explains.
In a regular solar panel, silicon ingots are sliced into very thin wafers and spread out to cover the widest area. Metal contacts are then added that activate the silicon material. In total, around 60 cells are placed together to form the panel.
Perovskite-on-silicon solar cells at the laboratory in Oxfordshire. - Oxford PV
For the tandem cells, perovskite is coated on top as an even thinner layer (around 1 micron to a silicon wafer’s 150 microns), which effectively creates two cells in one. The perovskite is invisible to the naked eye, but absorbs a higher energy spectrum from the sun than silicon can take in.
By producing more power per panel, “perovskite-on-silicon is the next tech idea that takes solar above what silicon alone can do,” says Crossland. Where silicon has a theoretical efficiency limit of 29 per cent, the tandem cell could reach 43 per cent.
The extra cost of adding the perovskite layer is more than outweighed by the value of this additional energy, explains Ward, making it a “no-brainer” for commercial partners.
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What can perovskite-on-silicon panels be used for?
A spectrum of customers have declared their interest in perovskite-on-solar panels - from homeowners to major utility companies.
In September 2024, Oxford PV shipped its panels to an undisclosed US utility company, in the world’s first commercial deployment of perovskite tandem solar tech.
The panels are being installed in the corner of a new solar field, and monitored so that the US business can compare its benefits.
As well as ‘core’ manufacturing for solar roofs and fields, Oxford PV’s factory in Brandenburg can make cells for more specialist applications like aviation.
Perovskite-on-silicon cells being produced at the Brandenburg factory. - Oxford PV
Solar panels enable UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that are used for 5G, military surveillance and satellite mapping to work like “one large flying wing”, explains Ward.
With the wings limited by weight and size, the power that these new solar cells can provide is “absolutely strategic”.
Perovskite-on-silicon panels could enable UAVs to stay afloat for longer, or fly at a more northerly latitude where the sun is weaker.
Scientists in the Oxfordshire lab are constantly trialling new ideas and materials, before sending prototypes to Brandenburg to prove that they can be scaled up. However, only a fraction make it that far: “In a commercial facility you can’t be changing the recipes daily,” Ward adds.
The German factory is not yet a gigawatt facility, however, and Oxford PV is keen to collaborate with other firms to realise the full potential of perovskite for our swiftly electrifying world.
‘Having an ecosystem is awesome’: How solar tech companies are collaborating
Given the reach of its early patents, collaboration is a core pillar of Oxford PV’s plans.
“It’s quite hard to do a perovskite-on-silicon solar cell without having to go a long way out of your way to avoid the IP set that we have,” says Ward.
“We’re not trying to keep it all to ourselves, but we would like to be involved if people are using our intellectual property to come to market.” As well as licensing, the company offers valuable knowhow to get partners up to speed.
Most of the newer start-ups are concentrated in China and, supported by a strategic drive for PV, the US.
In Europe, existing energy or silicon companies are increasingly getting into perovskite tandems, such as Enel in Italy.
“Having an ecosystem is awesome,” says Ward. “The whole market deciding that that’s where you’re going is much easier than saying hey, we’re the only people in this, because the evangelising you have to do to the customer base and to investors is so much harder.”
The CEO is confident that it will be a while before a new innovation comes along that puts perovskite in the rearview mirror. And, with the COP28 target of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, companies need to be investing in technologies that exist today.
“For all the negative news about European manufacturing and European PV, we have a new facility doing new technologies in a way that’s just not the same as old solar in silicon. China has done a very good job of making solar cheap in their own scale and efforts,” says Ward. “But this is a new paradigm.”
Chinese solar firms, ever-nimble, go further afield where US tariffs don't reach
Sun, November 3, 2024
By Lewis Jackson, Phuong Nguyen, Colleen Howe and Nichola Groom
(Reuters) - Some of the biggest Chinese-owned solar factories in Vietnam are cutting production and laying off workers, spurred on by the expansion of U.S. trade tariffs targeting it and three other Southeast Asian countries.
Meanwhile, in nearby Indonesia and Laos, a slew of new Chinese-owned solar plants are popping up, out of the reach of Washington's trade protections. Their planned capacity is enough to supply about half the panels installed in the U.S. last year, Reuters reporting shows.
Chinese solar firms have repeatedly shrunk output in existing hubs while building new factories in other countries, allowing them to sidestep tariffs and dominate the U.S. and global markets despite successive waves of U.S. tariffs over more than a decade designed to rein them in.
While Chinese firms have been moving their solar manufacturing for years, the scope of the shift to Indonesia and Laos in this latest phase has not previously been reported. More than a dozen people in five countries, including employees at Chinese plants, officials at non-Chinese solar companies and lawyers were interviewed for this article.
"It's a huge cat and mouse game," said William A. Reinsch, a former trade official in the Clinton administration and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"It's not that hard to move. You set up and you play the game again. The design of the rules is such that the U.S. is usually one step behind."
China accounts for about 80% of the world's solar shipments, while its export hubs elsewhere in Asia make up much of the rest, according to SPV Market Research. That's a sharp contrast to two decades ago when the U.S. was a global leader in the industry.
America's imports of solar supplies, meanwhile, have tripled since Washington began imposing its tariffs in 2012, hitting a record $15 billion last year, according to federal data. While almost none came directly from China in 2023, some 80% came from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia – home to factories owned by Chinese firms.
Washington slapped tariffs on solar exports from those four Southeast Asia nations last year and expanded them in October following complaints from manufacturers in the United States.
Over the last 18 months, at least four Chinese or China-linked projects have begun operations in Indonesia and Laos, and another two have been announced. Together, the projects total 22.9 gigawatts (GW) in solar cell or panel capacity.
Much of that production will be sold in the United States, the world's second-biggest solar market after China and one of the most lucrative. U.S. prices have on average been 40% higher than those in China over the past four years, according to data from PVinsights.
U.S. solar producers have repeatedly stated in trade complaints lodged with the U.S. government that they can't compete with cheap Chinese products that they say are unfairly supported by subsidies from the Chinese government and the Asian countries they export from.
Chinese solar firms have countered that their mastery of the technology makes them more competitive on price.
Tariffs are a key theme in the U.S. election, with Republican former President Donald Trump proposing levies on all U.S. imports to stimulate U.S. manufacturing, including a 60% rate on any goods from China. His rival, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris has said Trump's plan would raise costs for U.S. consumers.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, however, have shown support for tougher tariffs on China's solar shipments to nurture a domestic supply chain.
"Going forward, the American public should demand much stricter enforcement of tariffs, especially around (China's) use of third countries to break U.S. trade law," Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on China, told Reuters.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, the White House and China's commerce ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
PAIN IN VIETNAM
The most immediate visible impact of the latest U.S. tariffs, which have brought total duties to more than 300% for some producers, has been in Vietnam's solar sector.
In August, Reuters visited industrial parks in northern Vietnam owned by Chinese-owned companies including Longi and Trina Solar, and spoke with workers.
In Bac Giang province, hundreds of workers at a large factory complex owned by Longi Green Energy Technology's Vinasolar unit lost their jobs this year, two employees with knowledge of the matter said.
The company was using just one of nine production lines in the industrial park, one of them said.
In Thai Nguyen, another province, Trina Solar has idled one of its two factories making solar cells and panels, two employees there said.
The employees at both companies declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Longi did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. It said in June it had suspended output at a Vietnamese solar cell plant but did not provide details. Trina declined to comment. It said in June that some facilities in Vietnam and Thailand would be shut down for maintenance without elaborating.
While U.S. solar import data shows shipments from Vietnam up almost 74% through August, industry analysts have attributed the jump to the frontloading of exports to get ahead of this year's U.S. tariffs.
Vietnam's government did not respond to requests for comment.
NEW EXPORT BASES, US PLANTS
Chinese solar companies are flocking to Indonesia motivated by the tariffs on Vietnam, according to Indonesian industry ministry official Beny Adi Purwanto who cited Thornova Solar as an example. Thornova says on its website its Indonesian plant has annual capacity to build 2.5 GW of solar modules and 2.5 GW of solar cells for the North American market.
A new 1 GW Trina module and cell plant will be fully operational by end 2024 and will expand capacity, according to Beny. He noted China Lesso Group's solar module plant which has 2.4 GW in production capacity.
China-linked New East Solar also announced a 3.5 GW panel and cell plant in Indonesia last year.
The Chinese companies did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The shift to Indonesian production has been sharp and swift, according to one manager at a U.S. solar firm who was told by their Chinese supplier in Indonesia that they're inundated with big orders from major Chinese firms looking to export to the United States.
"The scale is totally different," said the manager who declined to be identified.
Solar exports from Indonesia to the U.S. nearly doubled to $246 million through August of 2024, according to federal data.
Solar companies seeking greener pastures in Laos include Imperial Star Solar. The firm, which has Chinese roots but most of its production in Cambodia, opened a Laos wafer plant in March slated to eventually have 4 GW in capacity.
The move, it said in a statement at the time, helped it sidestep U.S. tariffs.
SolarSpace also opened a 5 GW solar cell plant in Laos in September 2023. The primary purpose of transferring production capacity to Laos was not related to U.S. tariffs, the company said in a statement to Reuters but did not elaborate.
Solar exports from Laos to the U.S. were non-existent in the first eight months of last year but were worth some $48 million through August of 2024.
Others are going further afield.
JinkoSolar said in July it had signed an almost $1 billion deal with partners in Saudi Arabia to build a new 10 GW solar cell and module plant in the kingdom.
Construction of U.S. solar-manufacturing plants by Chinese companies is also surging as they too seek to take advantage of U.S. incentives.
Chinese companies will have at least 20 GW worth of annual solar panel production capacity on U.S. soil within the next year, enough to serve about half the U.S. market, according to a Reuters analysis.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney, Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi, Colleen Howe in Beijing and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman in Jakarta, Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu in Hanoi, David Kirton in Shenzhen and Alexandra Alper in Washington; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Edwina Gibbs)
A general view of the Chinese solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar's facility in Thai Nguyen · Reuters
Sun, November 3, 2024
By Lewis Jackson, Phuong Nguyen, Colleen Howe and Nichola Groom
(Reuters) - Some of the biggest Chinese-owned solar factories in Vietnam are cutting production and laying off workers, spurred on by the expansion of U.S. trade tariffs targeting it and three other Southeast Asian countries.
Meanwhile, in nearby Indonesia and Laos, a slew of new Chinese-owned solar plants are popping up, out of the reach of Washington's trade protections. Their planned capacity is enough to supply about half the panels installed in the U.S. last year, Reuters reporting shows.
Chinese solar firms have repeatedly shrunk output in existing hubs while building new factories in other countries, allowing them to sidestep tariffs and dominate the U.S. and global markets despite successive waves of U.S. tariffs over more than a decade designed to rein them in.
While Chinese firms have been moving their solar manufacturing for years, the scope of the shift to Indonesia and Laos in this latest phase has not previously been reported. More than a dozen people in five countries, including employees at Chinese plants, officials at non-Chinese solar companies and lawyers were interviewed for this article.
"It's a huge cat and mouse game," said William A. Reinsch, a former trade official in the Clinton administration and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"It's not that hard to move. You set up and you play the game again. The design of the rules is such that the U.S. is usually one step behind."
China accounts for about 80% of the world's solar shipments, while its export hubs elsewhere in Asia make up much of the rest, according to SPV Market Research. That's a sharp contrast to two decades ago when the U.S. was a global leader in the industry.
America's imports of solar supplies, meanwhile, have tripled since Washington began imposing its tariffs in 2012, hitting a record $15 billion last year, according to federal data. While almost none came directly from China in 2023, some 80% came from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia – home to factories owned by Chinese firms.
Washington slapped tariffs on solar exports from those four Southeast Asia nations last year and expanded them in October following complaints from manufacturers in the United States.
Over the last 18 months, at least four Chinese or China-linked projects have begun operations in Indonesia and Laos, and another two have been announced. Together, the projects total 22.9 gigawatts (GW) in solar cell or panel capacity.
Much of that production will be sold in the United States, the world's second-biggest solar market after China and one of the most lucrative. U.S. prices have on average been 40% higher than those in China over the past four years, according to data from PVinsights.
U.S. solar producers have repeatedly stated in trade complaints lodged with the U.S. government that they can't compete with cheap Chinese products that they say are unfairly supported by subsidies from the Chinese government and the Asian countries they export from.
Chinese solar firms have countered that their mastery of the technology makes them more competitive on price.
Tariffs are a key theme in the U.S. election, with Republican former President Donald Trump proposing levies on all U.S. imports to stimulate U.S. manufacturing, including a 60% rate on any goods from China. His rival, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris has said Trump's plan would raise costs for U.S. consumers.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, however, have shown support for tougher tariffs on China's solar shipments to nurture a domestic supply chain.
"Going forward, the American public should demand much stricter enforcement of tariffs, especially around (China's) use of third countries to break U.S. trade law," Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on China, told Reuters.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, the White House and China's commerce ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
PAIN IN VIETNAM
The most immediate visible impact of the latest U.S. tariffs, which have brought total duties to more than 300% for some producers, has been in Vietnam's solar sector.
In August, Reuters visited industrial parks in northern Vietnam owned by Chinese-owned companies including Longi and Trina Solar, and spoke with workers.
In Bac Giang province, hundreds of workers at a large factory complex owned by Longi Green Energy Technology's Vinasolar unit lost their jobs this year, two employees with knowledge of the matter said.
The company was using just one of nine production lines in the industrial park, one of them said.
In Thai Nguyen, another province, Trina Solar has idled one of its two factories making solar cells and panels, two employees there said.
The employees at both companies declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Longi did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. It said in June it had suspended output at a Vietnamese solar cell plant but did not provide details. Trina declined to comment. It said in June that some facilities in Vietnam and Thailand would be shut down for maintenance without elaborating.
While U.S. solar import data shows shipments from Vietnam up almost 74% through August, industry analysts have attributed the jump to the frontloading of exports to get ahead of this year's U.S. tariffs.
Vietnam's government did not respond to requests for comment.
NEW EXPORT BASES, US PLANTS
Chinese solar companies are flocking to Indonesia motivated by the tariffs on Vietnam, according to Indonesian industry ministry official Beny Adi Purwanto who cited Thornova Solar as an example. Thornova says on its website its Indonesian plant has annual capacity to build 2.5 GW of solar modules and 2.5 GW of solar cells for the North American market.
A new 1 GW Trina module and cell plant will be fully operational by end 2024 and will expand capacity, according to Beny. He noted China Lesso Group's solar module plant which has 2.4 GW in production capacity.
China-linked New East Solar also announced a 3.5 GW panel and cell plant in Indonesia last year.
The Chinese companies did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The shift to Indonesian production has been sharp and swift, according to one manager at a U.S. solar firm who was told by their Chinese supplier in Indonesia that they're inundated with big orders from major Chinese firms looking to export to the United States.
"The scale is totally different," said the manager who declined to be identified.
Solar exports from Indonesia to the U.S. nearly doubled to $246 million through August of 2024, according to federal data.
Solar companies seeking greener pastures in Laos include Imperial Star Solar. The firm, which has Chinese roots but most of its production in Cambodia, opened a Laos wafer plant in March slated to eventually have 4 GW in capacity.
The move, it said in a statement at the time, helped it sidestep U.S. tariffs.
SolarSpace also opened a 5 GW solar cell plant in Laos in September 2023. The primary purpose of transferring production capacity to Laos was not related to U.S. tariffs, the company said in a statement to Reuters but did not elaborate.
Solar exports from Laos to the U.S. were non-existent in the first eight months of last year but were worth some $48 million through August of 2024.
Others are going further afield.
JinkoSolar said in July it had signed an almost $1 billion deal with partners in Saudi Arabia to build a new 10 GW solar cell and module plant in the kingdom.
Construction of U.S. solar-manufacturing plants by Chinese companies is also surging as they too seek to take advantage of U.S. incentives.
Chinese companies will have at least 20 GW worth of annual solar panel production capacity on U.S. soil within the next year, enough to serve about half the U.S. market, according to a Reuters analysis.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney, Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi, Colleen Howe in Beijing and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman in Jakarta, Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu in Hanoi, David Kirton in Shenzhen and Alexandra Alper in Washington; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Edwina Gibbs)
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