China’s Solar Dominance Faces New Rival: An Ultrathin Film
TOKYO—China’s near-monopoly on the solar-energy market has prompted the U.S. and allies to step up the search for workarounds. Engineers believe they have found one in a type of solar cell that looks and feels like camera film.
Japan is pushing the technology with subsidies and other support, a sign of how renewable energy, alongside other high-tech fields such as semiconductors, has become a geopolitical football. Chinese firms control over 80% of the global supply chain for silicon solar panels, and China’s share of polysilicon, the core material for the panels, is even higher. “The world will almost completely rely on China for the supply of key building blocks for solar panel production through 2025," the International Energy Agency says.
In the U.S., the Biden administration is seeking to build a domestic supply chain for solar panels. Japan, also looking for a homegrown solar solution, is focusing on what are called perovskite solar cells that don’t use any silicon. Invented by Japanese scientist Tsutomu Miyasaka, the cells use minerals forming a crystal structure called perovskite, which can be used in a device to turn the sun’s rays into electricity.
A key element in manufacturing perovskite is iodine. While hardly a resources powerhouse, Japan happens to be the world’s second-largest producer of iodine after Chile, accounting for around a third of global production. “Look at what China is doing with semiconductors.
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