Oxford PV, a technology start-up business and spin-out from Oxford University, has exclusively licensed and is developing a photovoltaic technology that has the potential to deliver low cost, efficient solar cells that can be readily incorporated into glass building facades.Speaking at a meeting of the European Materials Research Society (EMRS) held in Strasbourg (May 27-31), Dr.Henry Snaith, Oxford PV’s Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, revealed the latest jump in the efficiency for the flat junction, perovskite solar cell, the technology which the company’s team is developing at its new, purpose built product development facility at Begbroke Science Park near Oxford.
Importantly, the new test results have been achieved without using Mesoporous Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) as a semiconductor, making for a more efficient conversion of energy with enhanced stability.
This improvement, allied to the large area manufacturing process development and the use of abundant and extremely low-cost materials, is enabling Oxford PV to overcome the challenges of reliability, performance and cost often associated with PV solutions.
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“Our plan was to continuously optimise our perovskite solar cells towards a goal of more than 20% efficiency but these results are ahead of expectations. I see no reason why we can’t aim higher now and accelerate the transfer of our technology into production.”.
- Dr Henry Snaith
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Backed by £4.2m of equity and grant funding, Oxford PV is moving swiftly towards the manufacture and delivery of larger modules that meet internationally accepted standards and specifications for photovoltaic products.
Its primary objective is to deliver a massively scalable product for the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) market and then, as energy conversion performance improves further, for other high-volume PV applications.