King Charles suffers ‘disaster’ at plaque unveiling as he hails work of solar panel firm in Oxford
King Charles praised the “fantastic” work of a British company developing the next generation of solar panels, but spoke lightheartedly of the “disaster” of his plaque unveiling.
While touring the Oxford PV (Photovoltaics) headquarters, King found the panels to be significantly more efficient than conventional products and described them as “very necessary”.
The head of state has been advocating sustainability and climate action for decades, regularly speaking out about threats to the planet and adopting practical measures such as running his Aston Martin on eco-fuel.
“I hope you can speed up the transition a little bit,” he told a group of staff; This was a clear reference to the aim of switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
King added: “I think you’re extraordinary, how you’ve managed to keep it all going, but it takes time to get to the point where you can actually commercialize all of this.
“But we need them all badly; all your products are great; they can be applied to one or two roofs.”
There was a lighter moment when he pulled a sheet to unfurl a sign celebrating Charles’ visit and joked it was a “disaster” after it fell from the easel to the floor.
He was shown Oxford PV’s research and development laboratory, founded in 2010 as a spin-off from nearby Oxford University, which has become a world leader in the use of photosensitive perovskites to develop solar panels that are over 20% more efficient than conventional panels.
He looked at an electron microscope image of the surface of perovskite, a material placed on top of silicon solar panels to increase the efficiency of generating electricity by absorbing different parts of the light spectrum.
The King was about 45 minutes late after bad weather forced him to change from a helicopter to a car for the journey to Oxford, where he is believed to have come from London, and joked about the delay several times after apologizing for being late.
When Charles was shown images of commercial applications of advanced solar panels that had not yet been publicly released, he seemed impressed by the potential use in auto manufacturing, aviation and satellites.
Oxford PV’s managing director, David Ward, said after the visit that the firm had shipped “pilot volumes” of product to first customers, adding: “It’s taken a decade of work to turn a brilliant piece of science into a real module you see here, which we can give to a customer and they can put on the roof.”
“I don’t think one energy source will prevail over others, but solar energy is currently the cheapest form of energy production and deals with safety and energy conversion.”
