Founded three years ago from two research groups (one being NREL), Swift Solar has created perovskite tandems that are breaking world records for the percentage of power from photons turned into usable electricity. The company claims that silicon panels have reached their maximum efficiency levels and that these all perovskite solar cells, a highly efficient thin-film solar cell, are a potential game changer for the industry. These only all perovskite solar cells may be available within a few years.

Their founder states, “we have the potential to make panels that are more powerful, cheaper and can be mass-produced at very high rates.” They use two perovskite layers for higher power conversion efficiencies and low cost (perovskite is cheap and abundantly available) and are able to make the layers on thin, flexible substrates and foils. This TED talk video describes the technology in more detail.