This Britain startup is building highly-efficient solar cells with perovskite technology

In a recent development, Oxford PV, a provider of thin-film perovskite solar cells has recently raised €36 million in Series D funding round. The round was led by Goldwind, the leading provider of integrated renewable energy solutions in China, along with existing shareholders including Equinor and Legal & General Capital.

For those who are not aware, perovskite material is being used to build highly-efficient solar cells.

Bringing solar cell technology to the commercial phase

As per the press release, this funding will help the company to move its perovskite-based solar cell technology into the commercial phase. Founded by Henry Snaith and Kevin Arthur in 2010, Oxford PV has totally raised €72.4M.

Back in December 2017, received an EU bank financing of €15m, to support the transfer of its disruptive perovskite on silicon tandem solar cell technology from lab scale to commercialisation as well.

Oxford PV –  Provides thin-film perovskite solar cells

Perovskite PVs are constantly undergoing research and improvement, going from just 2% in 2006 to over 20.1% in 2015. Since it has a wide bandgap, it creates an opportunity in pairing them up with low bandgap photovoltaic technology, which will result in improved efficiency and will matter in a highly competitive market where system costs depend on efficiencies.

In addition, perovskite solar cells offer additional attributes like flexibility, semi-transparency, thin-film, light-weight, and low processing costs. The company’s technology has the potential to enable efficiency gains that will transform the economics of silicon solar technology and help accelerate the proliferation of solar energy generation as well.

Based out of Oxford, UK, Oxford PV has a research & development site in Oxford, UK and an industrial site in Brandenburg, Germany enabling the accelerated transfer of their technology to industrial scale solar cell production.

World record with 28% conversion efficiency,

Last year Oxford PV announced a new, certified, world record for its perovskite-based solar cell. As per the company, Oxford PV’s 1 cm2 perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell has achieved a 28% conversion efficiency, certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. With this, the company edged out its own previous certified record of 27.3% efficiency.

Global transition to a clean energy future

Xiao Zhiping, Vice President at Goldwind said:

Goldwind’s investment in Oxford PV supports our commitment to innovation that delivers clean, cost-efficient renewable energy. It is our belief that photovoltaics and wind power will become an increasingly important part of the global energy mix, over the next 20 years.

Frank P. Averdung, Chief Executive Officer at Oxford PV commented:

We are delighted to have investors that recognise the capability of our perovskite solar cell technology to transform the performance of silicon-based photovoltaics and the role it will play in the global transition to a clean energy future.

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