A New Perovskite Solar Panel Is Coming, Trump Or No Trump

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The hits just keep on coming for President Trump’s upside-down “American Energy Dominance” plan. In the latest development, the all-American solar startup Tandem PV has just raked in $50 million in Series A funding, aimed at bringing new low cost, game changing perovskite solar panel technology to market.

The Rise Of the Perovskite Solar Panel

Perovskite solar cells represent a new opportunity to keep driving the cost of solar energy down. There being no such thing as a free lunch, perovskite is a relatively inexpensive but finicky material. One emerging solution is to layer perovskite in a tandem solar cell with durable — but more expensive — silicon technology. The idea is to give silicon a power boost with a perovskite layer while reducing overall costs (see lots more perovskite background here).

Tandem PV has introduced a variation in which it takes advantage of the low cost of perovskite material by deploying it on a panel-wide basis. The company states that the perovskite layer on its new tandem solar panels is 200 times thinner than silicon, enabling the company to manufacture solar panels with just 10% of the energy required for fabricating conventional silicon panels.

Until Trump took office on January 20, the US government was among the front-runners in a global race to support new perovskite solar panel innovators. Tandem PV is a good example of the role of government support. The company is on its way to becoming another success story for the US, through funding from the Department of Energy. Last June, Tandem PV announced its 10th award from the Energy Department, a $4.7 million pot aimed at vaulting the company’s tandem perovskite solar panels into the commercial market.

“The selected project will help Tandem PV prove out its revolutionary pairing of conventional silicon solar with perovskite materials for panels that have the potential to be up to 40% more powerful than those used today,” Tandem PV stated.

$50 Million Says This New Tandem Perovskite Solar Cell Is A Winner

Well, that was then. This is now. Trump issued a blanket freeze on federal disbursements on his first day in office and he failed to include solar energy in his “Energy Emergency” declaration, which puts a pretty big crimp into public sector investments in new solar technologies, at least for the time being.

Nevertheless, the solar energy cat is already out of the bag, the horses have left the barn, and it’s too late for Trump to stop next-generation solar technology from reaching the mass market. Tandem PV announced its $50 million Series A haul on March 4, noting that it was spearheaded by the $5 billion US-based venture capital fund Eclipse.

The leading US energy firm Constellation Energy also participated in the funding round along with Planetary Technologies, Uncorrelated Ventures, Trellis Climate, Stifel Bank, CSC Leasing, and other investors including former SunPower CEO Tom Werner.

The Series A round builds on the commercial acceleration award Tandem received from the Energy Department last June. “This investment will enable Tandem PV to construct a breakthrough commercial-scale manufacturing facility in the U.S., accelerating the adoption of its high-efficiency solar panels and allowing the U.S. to reduce its dependency on foreign manufacturers while increasing its energy security,” Tandem emphasized in a press statement.

Just How Good Are These New Perovskite Solar Panels?

The US solar industry had another banner year in 2024, while still relying primarily on silicon technology. Just imagine what the industry can do once high-performing, lower-costing perovskite solar panels hit the market.

On its part, Tandem PV is not leaving much up to the imagination. The company claims that its perovskite-enabled solar panels have already reached the 28% mark for solar conversion efficiency. Later this year the company also expects to hit the 30% solar conversion efficiency mark and scoot past it, too.

Tandem PV asserts that its solar panels will be 30% more powerful than a typical silicon solar panel. That means solar developers can squeeze more kilowatts out of less space, increasing the range of sites suitable for solar development.

The increase in solar conversion efficiency also translates into follow-on savings related to transportation and installation, including labor costs.

Trump Or No Trump, The Age Of Fossil Fuels Is Drawing To A Close

Tandem PV is planning to build its new perovskite solar panel factory in the US, in an as-yet to be determined location. That’s just the tip of a domestic manufacturing network that will keep solar developers busy for years to come, regardless of Trump’s efforts to quash solar energy and other renewables.

Aside from Tandem PV, the Solar Energy Industries Association notes that other US solar stakeholders have already passed the 50-gigawatt mark for solar module production, up from just 7 gigawatts in 2020, making the US the third-largest solar module manufacturer in the world. SEIA has also recorded plans for 56 gigawatts of new U.S. solar cell production, 24 gigawatts of wafers, and 13 gigawatts of ingots.

North Carolina is one beneficiary. The state is on track to host a 2-gigawatt, $294 million solar module factory that will rev up operations later this year, under the umbrella of the Vietnamese firm Boviet solar. Not to be outdone, its sister state, South Carolina, is also getting a new 3-gigawatt solar cell factory this year.

Despite all the activity, the loss of federal support will not be particularly helpful to the US in terms of global competition. That’s too bad, because there’s plenty of room at the table. Globally, installed solar capacity globally already blew past the 2-terrawatt goalpost last November according to data compiled by the trade organization Global Solar Council, adding a full terrawatt in just two years after hitting the 1-terrawatt mark in 2022.

“Notably, 2 TW of solar is equivalent to the total installed electricity capacity of India, the USA and UK combined and could power an estimated one billion homes,” the Solar Council observes.

To put the pace of acceleration into perspective, the Solar Council also points out that it took almost 70 years for the world to assemble its first terrawatt of installed solar capacity, counting from the introduction of the first practical solar cell back in 1954 by — you guessed it — the US solar innovator Bell Labs.

Adding to the impact of solar technology improvements is the US energy storage industry, which has been outdoing itself of late. The combination of wind and solar energy with lithium-ion battery arrays, is already driving natural gas out of the market for new “peaker” power plants. Baseload power plants are next on the list…

Speaking of US energy policy, the Republican majority in Congress is finally waking up to the fact that a rogue Commander-in-Chief occupies the Oval Office. What they will do about it remains to be seen. If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread or better yet, find your representatives in Congress and tell them what you think.

Photo (cropped): Trump or no Trump, investors have bet $50 million on the perovskite solar cell of the future, aimed at accelerating decarbonization and pushing fossil energy out of the global economy (courtesy of Tandem PV).