Oxford Photovoltaics Limited (Oxford PV) was founded in 2010 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford to commercialize a new technology for thin-film solar cells. It was amongst the first in the world to recognize the potential of perovskites to act as a low-cost, highly efficient solar cell absorber material to convert sunlight into electricity.

Oxford PV is developing and commercializing thin-film perovskite solar cells, which can be printed directly onto silicon solar cells, CIGS solar cells or glass. Pioneering work developing perovskite thin-film solar cells has delivered a route to boosting the efficiency of current commercial cells; using a high efficiency coating in a multi-junction or “tandem” cell architecture. In addition, printing perovskites directly onto glass has led to a semi-transparent coating ideal for BIPV applications and, once integrated into the glazing units of a building, the technology is capable of providing a significant percentage of the building’s electrical energy requirements directly from sunlight.

By employing well known and well understood printing processes, focused on inexpensive and abundant raw materials, Oxford PV has developed a highly cost effective technology.

The company has exclusively licensed the rapidly growing portfolio of fundamental intellectual property developed by its academic team.

Oxford PV has acquired the former thin-film production site of Bosch Solar in Germany, to establish a fab with pilot-scale capacity for perovskite wafers. To that end, the Company also received funding of €15 million form the European Investment Bank (EIB), to support the commercialization of its perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cell technology. In June 2018, Oxford PV reported a new perovskite tandem solar cell record, certified by Fraunhofer ISE at a conversion efficiency of 27.3%. Oxford PV’s latest record for a 1 cm2 perovskite-silicon tandem solar, reportedly exceeds the former 26.7% efficiency world record for a single-junction silicon solar cell.