“Silicon built the solar age, but perovskite may unlock its next horizon, capturing more of the sun’s promise from every square metre of light.” – MJ Martin
Canada Has an Important Position in Perovskite Technology
Canada has a significant stake in the development of perovskite photovoltaics. Researchers associated with the University of Toronto, particularly Professor Edward Sargent and his collaborators, have developed substantial intellectual property covering perovskite materials, interfaces, stability, and manufacturing techniques. Canadian Patent CA3052076C, for example, covers contact passivation techniques for perovskite optoelectronics, including low-temperature, solution-processed devices and tandem architectures. The University of Toronto also holds other granted and pending Canadian patents involving perovskite structures and stability. Canada therefore holds strategically valuable patents, although it would be incorrect to say that Canada owns the fundamental technology exclusively. Perovskite photovoltaics are the subject of an international patent and research race. (Google Patents)
Silicon Remains the Benchmark
Crystalline silicon dominates solar power because it is efficient, durable, predictable, and supported by decades of manufacturing experience. Fraunhofer ISE reports that commercial crystalline-silicon modules are approaching 25 percent efficiency, with a shipment-weighted average of about 22.7 percent. The laboratory record for monocrystalline silicon cells is approximately 27.9 percent, while a large-area silicon module has reached 26.2 percent. (Fraunhofer ISE)
Silicon is like a highly developed aircraft engine. Engineers know how it behaves, how long it lasts, and where its physical limits lie. The problem is that silicon is approaching those limits. A single absorber cannot efficiently use every wavelength in sunlight, and the theoretical limit for a conventional single-junction silicon cell is approximately 29.4 percent. (Fraunhofer ISE)
Perovskite Changes the Efficiency Equation
Single-junction perovskite cells are already remarkably competitive. Fraunhofer reports laboratory efficiencies around 26.9 percent, essentially placing perovskite in the same performance class as the best silicon cells. The U.S. Department of Energy reports experimental perovskite performance approaching 28 percent in 2026. (Fraunhofer ISE)
The real revolution, however, is not perovskite versus silicon. It is perovskite plus silicon.
A perovskite-silicon tandem places a thin perovskite absorber above a silicon cell. The perovskite captures higher-energy photons, while silicon collects lower-energy portions of the spectrum. It is analogous to fishing with two different nets, each optimized for a different size of fish.
In July 2026, LONGi announced a crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cell with a certified conversion efficiency of 35.5 percent, verified by the European Solar Test Installation. That compares with approximately 27.9 percent for the best single-junction silicon cell. On a cell-efficiency basis, the tandem therefore produces roughly 27 percent more power from the same illuminated area. (Longi)
At the module level, however, the technology is less mature. Fraunhofer and Oxford PV demonstrated large-area perovskite-silicon modules at 25.6 percent efficiency in 2026. This distinction between record laboratory cells and manufacturable panels is critical when assessing commercial claims. (Fraunhofer ISE)
Why Perovskite May Be the Future
Perovskite layers can be extremely thin. Fraunhofer describes a perovskite layer only about 500 nanometres thick on top of silicon. Their composition can also be adjusted to change the bandgap, allowing engineers to select which wavelengths the material absorbs. Some Canadian-developed architectures can be solution processed below 150°C, potentially reducing manufacturing energy and enabling lightweight or flexible applications. (Fraunhofer ISE)
Most importantly, perovskite does not require the solar industry to abandon silicon. It can improve an enormous existing silicon manufacturing ecosystem. Perovskite may therefore be less like a replacement engine and more like adding a turbocharger to an engine that has already been perfected.
The remaining challenge is durability. Moisture, oxygen, ultraviolet radiation, heat, ion migration, large-area manufacturing consistency, encapsulation, and lead management must still be addressed. Silicon has decades of outdoor performance history. Perovskite must prove that high efficiency can survive decades rather than thousands of laboratory testing hours. (The Department of Energy’s Energy.gov)
The Opportunity for Canada
For Canada, the question should not simply be whether perovskite is technically superior. The larger question is whether Canada can turn its research and intellectual property into Canadian manufacturing, employment, exports, and energy infrastructure.
Questions to Ponder
* Should Canada establish domestic pilot manufacturing around Canadian-developed perovskite IP?
* Would you accept a 30 percent-plus tandem module with less operating history than a 24 percent silicon module?
* And should Canadian qualification testing impose particularly severe freeze-thaw, moisture, snow-load, and temperature-cycling requirements before utilities deploy these modules at scale?
Summary
Perovskite is likely part of the future of solar power not because silicon has failed, but because silicon has succeeded so completely that the next great efficiency improvement requires another semiconductor working alongside it.
The key number today is therefore not simply “silicon 24 percent versus perovskite 28 percent.” The more consequential comparison is approximately 27.9 percent for record single-junction silicon versus 35.5 percent for the latest certified perovskite-silicon tandem laboratory cell. That tandem architecture is where the technological disruption lies.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a traveller, a pilot, a philosophizer, and a most of all, aromantic optimist.