The agreement between two U.S. solar technology companies to produce new generation photovoltaic modules will expand the output of products using domestic-sourced components, including cells, frames and glass. The principals said the partnership between solar manufacturer Solx and perovskite glass-maker Caelux will meet U.S demand for domestic content while producing more powerful modules that will compete internationally beyond the sunset of federal tax credits.
Caelux, based in Baldwin Park, California, completed the transition from research to commercial production of perovskite glass last year. The company’s Active Glass product replaces conventional solar glass as the top layer of a module, generating electricity from wavelengths that would otherwise go unused.
Solx will make the hybrid versions of its Aurora module at its new factory in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The cells for the new line will come from Georgia-based Suniva, the largest merchant provider of U.S.- produced silicon PV cells. Origami Solar supplies its U.S.-sourced steel frames.
The Aurora hybrid modules are expected to operate with an efficiency of 28%, enabling up to 30% more power density than silicon-only modules. Solx’s new factory has a stated output capacity of 1 GW of modules annually.
Early-production Solx Aurora modules incorporating Caelux’s Active Glass technology are scheduled for deployment at a U.S. project by an as yet unnamed developer. Solx says commercial volumes are expected by 2027, with a target output of more than a gigawatt per year. The Solx-Caelux deal specifies 3 GW of hybrid modules over five years. The company says it has plans to open new production facilities in the mainland U.S.
If supplying domestic content requirements are a factor in the partnership, John Holmes, co-founder and CEO of Solx, told pv magazine USA that short-term market signals are not the primary driver.
“We’re really thinking beyond tax credit generation,” Holmes said. “We’re built to win after the sunset of tax credits. Operating with the tech edge is really a way that we differentiate ourselves and support the long-term viability of both the Caelux and Solx businesses.”
According to Holmes, key factors in the partnership’s future competitiveness are the modern automation in the Aguadilla factory to manufacture modules cost-effectively, as well as the electricity production advantage enabled by Solx Aurora paired with Caelux’s perovskite glass.
Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux, told pv magazine USA that producing perovskite glass on a large scale poses significant challenges, but the company has spent a lot of research and development effort overcoming those challenges.
“There’s been a lot of good work that’s been done in research and development, a lot of great work that’s been done in the engineering of the product,” Graybeal said. “Now we’re building an organization that produces a product with 28% efficiency.”
As with any hybrid technology, be they tandem PV modules or printer-scanners, the virtue of the integrated system is only as good as its major components. You don’t want a situation where the perovskite glass stops producing electricity before the silicon cells do.
“The biggest challenge of producing perovskite at scale is its durability,” Graybeal said. “We’ve had a number of breakthroughs over the last 18 months that have enabled us to solve the durability problem to the point where we can support a module maker like Solx with technology that satisfies its requirements, specifically its own module warranty.”
As pv magazine USA reported last year, Caelux has developed a four-terminal manufacturing process that sacrifices some conversion efficiency compared to other processes in exchange for improved durability. As an aside, Caelux was co-founded by Harry Atwater, a Caltech physics professor who as gone on to become a pioneer in space-based solar power.
Holmes adds that Solx has a partner in Caelux that is a manufacturing company with a strong R&D organization, not a lab.
“We’re partnering with a company that is already producing at meaningful scale,” he said. “Solx is truly a vector of giga-manufacturing capability at our Puerto Rico facility. What we are doing is integrating their mass-produced technology into our production process and optimizing it so that we can supply the market. We don’t view this as experimental in nature, or that Caelux technology is transitioning from a lab to a line. Caelux already operates a line at scale.”
The Solx-Caelux deal comes at a busy time for U.S. solar technology companies. Suniva, supplier of Aurora’s silicon cells, recently announced that it is investing $350 million to build a new manufacturing plant in South Carolina expected to have an annual capacity of 4.5 GW when operational in 2027. Perovskite-silicon solar module maker Tandem PV recently opened a demonstration factory with a capacity of 40 MW in Freemont, California, that promises competition for the hybrid module market.
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