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David Dodwell

The last time I wrestled directly with the playful, mysterious and dangerous world of chemistry was during my final days of school, when as a prank I dropped a vial of potassium permanganate into the school’s water tanks. It was a joy to see the taps and the toilets run vivid purple and to watch the panic and consternation of school staff, who still today don’t know how it happened.
So I don’t quite know what drew me to a recent article in the Financial Times on the perovskite solar cells – ultra-thin, light and bendy – that the Japanese government is spending US$1.5 billion on, in a bid to find a meaningful niche alongside China’s massive dominance in green energy technology.
A paper published by the Royal Society of Chemistry talks of perovskite solar panels as “a strong candidate for future terawatt-scale renewable energy generation” and predicts this will lead to solar overtaking natural gas as the world’s leading energy source in 2026, and coal by 2027.
Silicon-based solar panels are used in most photovoltaic installations. Despite their success which, according to the International Energy Agency, helped photovoltaic generation account for 6.8 per cent of all renewable energy supply last year and are set to grow to 16.1 per cent by 2030, they have a number of drawbacks – such as being rigid, heavy and often need to be blanketed across large swathes of land.
Perovskite solar modules have generated excitement because the perovskite “skin” can be 100 times thinner than silicon-based panels and significantly lighter. They can in theory cover the walls and roofs of buildings, stadiums, an array of curvy surfaces, aircraft, mobile phones and a wide range of wearable devices, bringing electricity everywhere.
They have got the space industry excited not just because they are light and bendy, but because they cope with radiation, and can operate in outer space.

The challenge faced by the chemists and engineers who are developing them has been the difficulty in moving from the laboratory to real-world settings complicated by moisture, heat and ultraviolet light, as well as dealing with end-of-life disposal. Modules commonly contain levels of lead.
Perovskite is a particular kind of crystalline structure, first discovered in 1839 in the form of calcium titanate in Russia’s Ural Mountains. Nowadays, it can be synthetically engineered using different precursor chemicals. What is distinctive about the perovskite structure is that, like silicon, it is particularly good at capturing light and converting it into electricity.
But why is the Financial Times excited about Japan’s “bet” on perovskite solar modules? In reality, the development of the models is occurring at pace just about everywhere. Either the Financial Times or the Japanese government naively believes there is a distinctive niche for Japanese chemical companies to fill. The hope that Japan can disrupt China’s dominance in renewable energy development by focusing on perovskite solar modules is likely to be in vain.
Scratch the surface of a Google search, and it appears perovskite development is sprouting just about everywhere – from Oxford PV in the UK to Greatcell Solar in Australia and Merck in Germany. Astute Analytica identifies more than 45 research institutes globally working on thin-film perovskite technologies, with at least 120 pilot-scale manufacturing lines worldwide.


Wood MacKenzie places nine Chinese solar companies in the world’s top 12, with at least seven of the 12 expected to produce more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2027.
Within the Greater Bay Area development zone, in Guangdong province, we have Shenzhen Hiking PV in Zhongshan and Mellow Energy in Zhuhai. Japan’s investment in Sekisui Chemical seems modest by comparison. Taking over a former Sharp factory in Osaka, Sekisui aims to produce 1GW of cells by 2030.
Wood MacKenzie’s head of solar supply chain research Yana Hryshko told the Financial Times that Japan’s aspirations are “feasible”, but adds: “The only place capable of scaling up a particular technology and bringing down the cost is China.”
The Japanese government’s initiative conjures 1980s memories of Japan as Asia’s “lead goose” in the “flying goose” economic development vision that once captured the imagination of economic planners.
As with green energy technologies, Japan’s development of hydrogen power, humanoid robots and a wide range of other technologies face a similar challenge: the critical mass of China’s giant market and its giant engineering capacity may ultimately dictate where innovation gravitates.

This all leads to an awkward question: why has Hong Kong failed to play a more prominent role in developing perovskite solar cells? There are already producers in nearby cities. According to the Council on Tall Buildings, Hong Kong has the world’s largest population of high-rise and curtain-wall buildings – 564 of them are higher than 150 metres (492 feet). Shenzhen is close behind, with 443 buildings over 150 metres, and 184 above 200 metres. Also in the world’s top five is Guangzhou, with 203 buildings over 150 metres.
Surely Hong Kong and neighbouring Shenzhen should be the world’s test bed for application of thin-skin solar power. Research is under way at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and City University of Hong Kong.
With such ambitious plans for the creation of new towns in the Northern Metropolis along our Shenzhen border, surely we should be nurturing ambitions to coat millions of metres of roofs and walls with building-integrated photovoltaics and making us a leader in green energy generation and use. With all of our government’s talk of developing Hong Kong as an innovation hub, surely this is a no-brainer.


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Why isn’t Hong Kong a test bed for China’s green energy innovations?

Solar panels are seen before the island-side skyline of Hong Kong. Photo: Shutterstock

Perovskite solar cells under high-temperature ageing: Photo: City University of Hong Kong

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The city should take advantage of China’s burgeoning edge in alternative solar cell technologies to become a hub for renewables


The city should take advantage of China’s burgeoning edge in alternative solar cell technologies to become a hub for renewables.


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Inside Out & Outside In

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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Outside In

Why isn’t Hong Kong a test bed for China’s green energy innovations?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The city should take advantage of China’s burgeoning edge in alternative solar cell technologies to become a hub for renewables

The city should take advantage of China’s burgeoning edge in alternative solar cell technologies to become a hub for renewables