The Japan government has announced that it will invest 200,000 million yen (about 1.5 billion dollars) to accelerate the development and commercial production of Perovskita solar panels, a technology of Japanese origin that could be their best opportunity for Challenge China in the global market of renewable energies.
The bet is monumental. With this strong public investment, the Japanese authorities seek that the production of photovoltaic cells of Perovskita is equivalent to the capacity of 20 nuclear reactors by the year 2040. To achieve this, the Perovskita would mean a paradigm shift in the energy economy of Japan and the global geopolitics of clean energy.
Light, flexible and very Japanese. Perovskita is a crystalline material with the ability to absorb a lot of light which can be manufactured in ultrafine layers based on raw materials more affordable than silicon. Perovskita’s solar cells were invented by Japanese scientist Tsutomu Miyasaka while working in Fujifilm.
Japan Bet on movies of approximately one millimeter thick. One of the greatest values of this type of panel is its versatility. Due to their fine thickness and reduced weight, they can be installed on complex surfaces, such as roofs with little load capacity, buildings walls, transport stations or even vehicles. In a country with such little flat and usable land as Japan, these advantages could be decisive to boost solar energy beyond the large traditional photovoltaic parks.
The equivalent of 20 nuclear reactors. Japan has marked a very demanding calendar. The goal of producing energy equivalent to 20 nuclear reactors by 2040 is framed in the commitment that between 22% and 29% of the country’s total electricity generation comes from solar energy by then. At present, solar energy represents only 10% of its energy mix.
To fulfill this road map, the government has granted subsidies of up to 1 billion dollars to Sekisui Chemicalone of the leading conglomerates in the development of Perovskita. They add up to the 500 million dollars already invested in the research and development of technology and other funds that would ensure the supply chain. Iodine is an essential component in the manufacture of Sovskita and Japan solar cells is one of the world’s world producers.
The technical and economic challenges. One of the biggest technical challenges for Perovskita solar panels is moisture degradation. Sekisui He says he developed a sealed with specialized resins to prevent water between and accelerate deterioration.
As for the economic challenges, the main unknown is how long it will take to lower manufacturing costs to competitive levels, taking into account that producing flexible Perovskita panels is between three and four times more expensive than making crystalline silicon panels, which have been lowering the price year after year thanks to the Huge production capacity of China. Japan hopes that thanks to mass production, the price of these new panels will become comparable to that of traditional ones.
Reduce China dependence. In the end, it’s about that. China leads overwhelmingly the manufacture of solar panels conventional silicon, concentrating about 85% of the global production of photovoltaic cells and about 80% of the polysilic that they use. Japan, like other countries, depends largely on Chinese technology.
The defenders of the Japanese bet see in the Perovskita a historical opportunity to break that hegemony. This material dispenses with silicon and uses iodine, whose main world producer, next to Chile, is Japan, thus reducing bottlenecks and dependency risks.
Not only Japan develops Perovskitas. China too He is trying to win Japan In his own game. There are different variants of Perovskita and, while Japanese laboratories put all their efforts in ultrafine and flexible films, China has quickly advanced in hybrid models (more efficient silicon-butrovskite tandem cells) with thicker glass coated glass modules.
Although both regions compete with the same material in mind, the market could end up segmented in applications: in Japan, covered and facades; In China, large solar parks or double -layer panels for urban environments.
Image | Toshiba
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