The perovskite bet that could transform solar

Silicon solar panels have led the market for decades but will soon hit a ceiling around 25% efficiency. Perovskite, a frontier material once dismissed for degrading too fast, is now being called the holy grail of solar.

Saritha Peruri, VP of Commercialization at Tandem PV, is bringing it to market. The company stacks its proprietary perovskite on top of silicon, capturing a wider spectrum of light and pushing efficiency past 30%, a major jump over conventional solar. And because it builds on the silicon PV infrastructure that already exists, the path to scale stays simple.

Getting there wasn't easy. After a long Series A, Tandem PV pulled off something rare in deep-tech hardware: 100% equipment financing for its 40-megawatt demonstration factory. It's now shipping quarter-sized modules to utility-scale customers who want U.S.-made panels for supply chain certainty and the domestic content kicker. It’s potentially a bridge to a post-ITC world that cuts land and labor costs because each installation needs far fewer modules.

In this episode, host Lara Pierpoint talks with Saritha about reaching high durability and the challenges of financing deep-tech hardware.

Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced and edited by Ross Kenyon and Anne Bailey. Technical direction by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this show, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.