Episode 177 | Perovskite Performance | Caelux
In Episode 161, we discussed how thin-film CdTe cells are giving silicon a run for supremacy in the solar industry. My guest believes another thin film technology, perovskites, could both complement and compete with silicon.
“I’m a believer that perovskites will take over. But we need to commercialize early,” says Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux, a perovskite developer, based in Los Angeles. Perovskite solar cells are fairly new. The first documented experiments appear to have begun around 2009. Today, there are a few commercial manufacturers, like China’s Microquanta, but Caelux stands to be the first commercial developer in the West.
Perovskites are a class of nanomaterials that can produce very low-cost, yet very powerful, solar cells. They are an organometallic chemistry, in Caelux’s case, Methyl ammonium lead iodide (MAPbl 3). Scott says while the organic component is not the sole reason, “We used to measure lifetimes of these materials in minutes, maybe even seconds,” when they were first discovered in 2009. Now, he says their durability is measured in years.
Perovskite cells can work well enough on their own, and efficiency can be increased adding the number of “junctions,” however, that adds complexity and expense. Scott’s team has settled on a single-junction cell, and more specifically, the “four terminal hybrid tandem” market. Under this arrangement, Caelux would “borrow” the glass used on the silicon solar module, coat it and send it back to them. Scott says this would add a 6% absolute efficiency uplift. “That six percent translates into a lot of dollars into the pocket of somebody who builds a project with this technology,” says Scott.
In August, Caelux announced plans for ramping up the factory to 100MW of perovskite glass. Scott says this facility, in California, would serve as a pilot line or “development fab.” From there they would expand globally. Their first customer, India’s Reliance New Energy, would take those modules until a facility was built in that region. But the goal is to produce as much domestic consumption, domestically.
“Many of these technologies were developed in the U.S. or in the West, and found homes outside the United States,” says Scott, “and it’s about time we figured out how to bring it back home so that our economy can benefit from good manufacturing jobs.”
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