Perovskite application developers

BlueDot Photonics is a U.S-based company that is working on building next generation solar panels and photonic devices.

BlueDot Photonics' expertise is in the synthesis and characterization of photoactive materials and in the design and manufacturing of devices. The company is committed to finding new ways to harvest, manipulate and transform light using unique materials and simple manufacturing techniques.

BlueDot is commercializing proprietary technology to create the next generation of solar panels and photonic devices. It was also one of the startups selected for Shell Gamechanger Accelerator Powered by NREL, in which it will be developing a cost-effective and scalable manufacturing process to create solar panels using perovskite materials, which aim to increase solar panel output by at least 10%.

BM Renewables (BMR) is an Australian startup company that was established in early 2020. It focuses on fabricating halide based perovskite photovoltaic cells and modules using a solvent free approach.

BMR is currently striving to enhance the power conversion efficiencies (performance) of its cells by developing innovative processing steps to realize flexible, modular and reliable solar cells.

Caelux is a Khosla Ventures backed start-up company based in California. It was founded in 2014 as a spin-out of Caltech.

Caelux's mission is to catalyze the Integrated Power Enhancement solar market category by deploying perovskites technologies at a global scale. It is working on creating scalable, affordable and high-efficiency perovskite solutions.

Caelux attaches the silicon surface to the perovskite in parallel, so the currents are additive, and only the voltage has to be matched.

Caelux expects to reach the rooftop market first, and then the utility and C&I markets subsequently and is setting up a 50 MW prototype line, which can scale to 100 MW when run at 24/7. It will then build up in 100 MW units around the country, placing manufacturing near the customers. One of those 100 MW lines is meant to cost the company around $5 million.

The company wants to be self-funding by 2023 and then go for a 300 MW to 600 MW production capacity and shift to multi-GW by 2025.

Energy Materials Corp. (EMC) is focused on the development of high-speed, roll-to-roll printing of purebred perovskite solar panels.

EMC's manufacturer business model is based on leveraging joint development partners: Kodak’s manufacturing facilities, and Corning’s materials innovation, and combining them into a unique manufacturing model. This model inverts the restrictive, go slow paradigm with a pursuit of speed: in manufacturing scale-up, production throughput, capacity expansion and early revenue.

With over 100 years of Kodak printing experience and data informing development, EMC’s model is mapped for rapid, broad market segment participation, market disrupting product pricing, and gross margins that are more than twice that of current module manufacturers.

Evolar has been spun out of Uppsala University’s thin film solar cell research cluster. Evolar aims to produce perovskite solar cells at a high volume.

Evolar defines itself as an expert on evaporation of thin film materials with solid industry experience and world leading technology achievements. It plans to use its know-how to design reliable solar cells and to fast scale new manufacturing processes.

It has a high throughput R&D line running 24/7 with a large number of experiments under production like conditions. Using its unique method to mechanically stack perovskite and conventional solar cells, Evolar achieved high efficiency as well as ease of integration.

In November 2020, Evolar announced that it is partnering with Magnora ASA, a leading investment company in renewable energy. The raised capital will be spent to scale the processes in Evolar's high throughput R&D tools and prototype line in Uppsala, Sweden and thereby bringing its technology to the market in the near future.

In May 2023, Evolar was acquired by U.S-based First Solar.

UK-based Helio is developing both photoluminescent and electroluminescent perovskite-based materials for the display industry. It is a joint spin-off from both Oxford University and the University of Cambridge.

Helio aims to use its materials to improve the color performance and power efficiency of both LCD, OLED displays and MicroLED displays, using the high quantum efficiency, narrow emission spectrum and high absorption of perovskites.

In June 2020 we posted an interview with Helio's CEO, who discusses the company's technology and business.

In 2021, Hunt Perovskite Technologies merged with 1366 Technologies to create CubicPV.

Founded in 2013, Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT) specializes in highly-stable and efficient metal halide perovskite in single-junction solar panels for the utility-scale market.

HPT claims that after achieving highly-efficient (>18%) metal halide perovskite PV devices in spring 2014, it resolved to stabilize the perovskite material through better chemistry. Its early tests showed that even though the perovskite devices were highly-efficient and very reproducible, all the materials that made for an efficient device, also caused the PV device to fail.

HPT's team of scientists and engineers has designed its own stable and efficient perovskite solar cell from the ground-up. HPT is also exploring other applications incorporating its highly-stable and efficient perovskite semiconductor.

Iris PV is one of the projects working as part of Cyclotron Road - a hub for entrepreneurial scientists and engineers to start their journey from concept to first product.

The Berkeley, California-based company is working to modernize how silicon solar panels are manufactured and is attempting to increase the efficiency of PVs to a range of 25-30%.

Iris PV's technology adds a crystalline metal-halide perovskite layer to coat standard silicon solar panels, which produces additional electricity from infrared light. This is then layered on top of traditional silicon solar cells to create a “tandem” solar panel. Such tandem solar panels, composed of two materials instead of one, generate a greater amount of electricity per panel.

Iris PV is receiving technical assistance from researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) through SBV as part of DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technology-to-Market program. Iris PV cofounders Colin Bailie and Chris Eberpacher are working with NREL researchers to manufacture the technology at scale and accelerate the adoption of solar with their high-efficiency PV products.

Panasonic Corporation is a Japan-based worldwide leader in the development of diverse electronics technologies and solutions in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise solutions and more.

Panasonic is focusing on the development of perovskite solar cells and takes part in various research activities like the Solliance program (as part of a research program concerning the development of roll-to-roll manufacturing processes aimed at large scale production of flexible perovskite solar cells where it will be one of the industrial partners), research work with EPFL, and more.

In March 2018, Panasonic and Sekisui Chemical announced the development of perovskite-based solar cells that can be attached to walls and curved surfaces.

UK-based Power Roll was established to develop and commercialize its innovative proprietary energy storage and energy generation technologies. PRL's mission is to produce ultra-thin flexible solar photo-voltaic films in continuous rolls using rapid low-cost process.

In 2011 Dr. John Topping, the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer, developed the initial concept behind the Power Roll’s proprietary grooved based technologies and undertook initial proof of concept studies. In December 2012, John together with Saul Joicey co-founded and established Big Solar Limited (now Power Roll Limited) with some early stage seed capital.

Since then, PRL continued to evolve and now is solely focused on perovskites - although its architecture allows for multiple absorber materials to be used.

PRL reports that it has validated its technology using perovskites with the aid of The University of Sheffield and is currently working with NREL and SPECIFIC to promote scale-up.

PRL has also worked with Solliance in the past who did a technology validation with its architecture.

Rayleigh Solar Tech is a Canadian cleantech company that is focused on commercializing perovskite solar cells. Rayleigh’s technology is thin, lightweight, flexible, and efficient.

Rayleigh has focused heavily on manufacturability. They have developed a manufacturing method that uses roll-tot-roll slot-die coating, which makes their product highly scalable. Rayleigh is working to develop collaborations across a variety of industries where their solar cells could make an impact.

The Company has a pilot manufacturing facility with a roll-to-roll slot-die coater in Dartmouth, NS.

Japan-based Sekisui Chemical was established in 1947 and consists of three division companies (entities) and a corporate department. Sekisui is involved in a wide range of business in industries like: real-estate and housing, electronics, automotive, various chemicals and plastics (like photosensitive materials, semiconductors and more) and more.

In the field of perovskites, Sekisui seems to be involved in research pertaining to aspects of solar cells like encapsulation and coatings, stability improvements and more. The Company may be working with Panasonic, but this is not confirmed.

Solaires Enterprises (SE) is a Canada-based company aiming to make solar energy more accessible. It is committed to reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions with an ethical manufacturing process.

Its solution uses technology that incorporates perovskites into its Solar Ink™ that has a unique formulation that allows the fabrication of perovskite film with high energy conversion efficiency and high stability.

This allows SE to develop products, such as photovoltaic blinds, tiles, and windows, that incorporate the technology and reduce the average consumer's carbon footprint.

SE's inks can be used for different types of rigid and flexible substrates. It has been specially formulated to make it compatible with different fabrication processes, including spin coating, slot-die and blade-coating.

Due to the high photoluminescence quantum yield of perovskites at room temperature, SE's Solar Ink™ can also be used for light-emitting diodes (LED) applications with strong emission in the near-infrared region.

Swift Solar is a U.S. startup designing and manufacturing perovskite solar panels that are cheaper and more efficient than conventional panels.

The Swift Solar team includes leading solar technologists from Stanford, MIT, Cambridge (UK), Oxford (UK), and the University of Washington, with deep expertise in perovskite photovoltaic technology and scale-up. Swift’s core technologies range from new solar cell architectures to specialized manufacturing techniques initially developed in the labs at Stanford and MIT.

Wuxi UtmoLight technology (UtmoLight) is a perovskite photoelectric industrialization technology development company. Before it was spun-off, UtmoLight was the solar business unit of SVOLT Energy Technology of Great Wall holdings.

UtmoLight started research work on perovskite photoelectric technology in 2018. In April 2020, it spun out as UtmoLight Technology. UtmoLight is committed to the commercialization of solar cells and modules, light-emitting quantum dots and precursor materials which are all based on perovskite materials.

UtmoLight includes a cleanroom laboratory with an area of more than 1000m² has been built with comprehensive facilities. Its functions cover the research and development of perovskite solar cells and modules, perovskite quantum dots and thin films, and the synthesis of perovskite raw materials. At the same time, pilot production lines are also under construction in an area of more than 5000m².