King jokes of plaque ‘disaster’ during visit to Oxford solar panel firm
The King has praised the work of a pioneering British clean energy company in Oxford as “wonderful” – while laughing off a minor “disaster” as a plaque tumbled to the floor during his visit.
His Majesty visited the headquarters of Oxford PV (Photovoltaics), a firm developing the next generation of high-efficiency solar panels, and described their technology as “so vitally needed”.
A long-time advocate of sustainability and climate action, the King viewed the company’s latest advances in solar energy and urged staff to help accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.
“I hope you can speed up the transition a bit,” he told employees, in a nod to the UK’s efforts to move towards renewable sources of power.
He praised the team’s persistence in bringing their ideas to market, saying:
“I think you’re remarkable, how you’ve managed to keep it all going, but it does take time to get to the point where you can actually commercialise all these things.
But we need it all badly, all your products, fantastic – applicable on one or two roofs.”
‘Disaster’ at the plaque unveiling
There was a lighter moment when the King pulled a sheet away to unveil a plaque marking his visit. The plaque promptly fell from its easel, prompting him to quip “disaster” as onlookers laughed.
The mishap did little to overshadow the visit, which focused on cutting-edge solar technology that could play a key role in future energy systems.
Oxford spin-out at forefront of solar innovation
Oxford PV was founded in 2010 as a spin-out from the nearby University of Oxford and has since become a world leader in using light‑sensitive perovskite to boost solar panel performance.
The company’s panels are more than 20% more efficient than conventional products, thanks to a layer of perovskite added to standard silicon. This material absorbs different parts of the light spectrum, increasing the amount of electricity that can be generated.
During his tour, the King was shown an electron microscope image of the perovskite surface and given an overview of how the material is integrated into solar modules.
Bad weather delayed his arrival by around 45 minutes, forcing a switch from helicopter to car – believed to be from London – and he apologised to staff, joking several times about the late start.
Future uses from roofs to satellites
The King was also shown images of potential commercial applications for the advanced panels – which are not yet available to the general public – including car manufacturing, aeronautics and satellites.
David Ward, chief executive of Oxford PV, said the firm was now shipping “pilot volumes” of its products to early customers.
“There’s been a decade of work, getting it from a brilliant piece of science into a real module that you see here, that we could give to a customer and they put on a roof,” he said.
Mr Ward added that solar is set to remain one of the most important parts of the global energy mix:
“I don’t think one energy source will dominate all others, but solar right now is the cheapest form of energy generation and deals with security and energy transition.”