#06 Will it be the Main Axis of Next-Generation Energy? The Challenge of New Solar Cells

That's already the first step is to secure human resources. First of all, we had to ask ourselves, "Who is going to be the president? (laugh). The first person that came to mind was a classmate of mine from college, Mr. Kato. At the time, he was working in real estate in Takamatsu, and before that, he had built a career in real estate and turnaround-related work at investment banks in Japan and overseas, and was working hard as a businessman. He understood our technology, and we felt that we could not find a more reassuring ally in terms of management.

At first, as a friend, I thought what an interesting and unique thing he had to say (laughs). (Laughs) Although Mr. Wakamiya is a university professor, he has always had a strong desire to create his own company, or in other words, to commercialize, or at any rate, to bring his research to the world, and I was fascinated by that. I heard that the Kyoto University Group had established a scheme to provide full support, and I felt that this would be an interesting and rewarding opportunity. The deciding factors for me were, above all, the promising future of perovskite solar cells and the solid support system between industry, government, and academia. I felt that it would be a shame for a man not to take on such a dreamy research and development project with funding and support systems in place! （I made up my mind. (laugh) So I made up my mind to do it. I am still working hard as a single employee, but I have no regrets.

For example, there is a material called amorphous silicon, which is used in power supplies for calculators and other devices, but our perovskite solar cells are known to be twice as efficient at generating electricity as amorphous silicon. Even with weak light, our perovskite solar cells can efficiently capture light energy and generate electricity, so I think there are endless opportunities for their use. For example, nowadays, each person carries around a variety of devices such as mobile PCs and smartphones. As devices become more and more sophisticated, they require more and more electricity. Carrying around a number of chargers is heavy and difficult, but perovskite solar cells are thin, lightweight, and convenient to carry, making them suitable for mobile batteries and the like.

From a sales perspective, we are aiming to expand our sales channels with lightweight, thin, and bendable as our biggest selling points. As I mentioned earlier, we believe that the product can be used for building walls and interiors, curtains and other fabrics, disaster tents that can generate their own electricity, and other applications such as airplanes, drones, agricultural greenhouses, IoT sensors, lightweight mega solar panels, space satellites, and many more. In fact, we are working on a joint development project with several manufacturers, and we are proud to say that this is truly a dream solar cell.

And the power generation film can be chopped off with scissors. If you design it well and put it on a wristwatch, you can make a cool wearable device (laughs).

Taking advantage of its ability to be freely cut into any shape, automobile manufacturers are currently conducting research on using it on the roofs and bodies of cars. It would be a dream come true to have a gasoline-free solar car that generates its own electricity without recharging while driving in the daytime. According to a demonstration experiment conducted in a certain prefecture, a solar car can run 35 km if it generates 1 kW of electricity. The average person uses a solar-powered car for about 25 km a day, which is enough to drive around Kyoto City.

We are also working with manufacturers to develop the latest 5G base stations. This base station is an aircraft that flies automatically and for long periods of time in the stratosphere, so it must be lightweight; one base station can cover a radius of 70 km, and it can use its own power generation even if the ground base station is damaged in a disaster or if there is a power outage.

I originally studied organic chemistry at university, and have been developing highly purified precursor materials for perovskite semiconductors from the viewpoint of materials chemistry and unique deposition methods using such materials by utilizing the expertise in synthetic organic chemistry, including material design, synthesis, analysis, and purification techniques I learned there. We have so far developed purified lead iodide (Pbl2), which is already commercially available and used in many fields. Subsequently, we have developed a new DMF complex as a second-generation, highly purified precursor material. It has a high purity of 99.998% and is fast and well soluble in solvents. We have further developed it and succeeded in developing a process that allows "slow" application to large-area films.

I believe that perovskite batteries have the potential to solve the conflicting problems of energy and environmental conservation all at once. Our dream is to conduct research and development not only for the immediate future, but also for the next 100 or 200 years to ensure that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be able to live in a society that is useful to them. I would like young people to conduct research with this perspective in mind, and when in doubt, go back to the starting point of how the research you are doing now can benefit people and society. There are a variety of support measures available today to make this a reality, so I hope that you will gather information and seize the opportunity.

Unlike in the past, industry-government-academia collaboration has been realized in various forms, and giving concrete form to the results of university research is very realistic in this day and age. I myself jumped into the venture business world even though it was a gamble, and now I feel that it is truly rewarding and I am glad that I did. You can have practical experience in the field of business and management, and then use that career to become active in the world of research and development. I myself am a good example of this. People often say, "Give shape to your dreams," but you need funds to make it happen. Even though it is a high hurdle for an individual, now that the understanding of venture businesses has deepened and the circle of support has expanded, it is possible to make it a reality and not just a dream. I would like all young researchers to experience the joy of being able to contribute to society by linking their research to people's lives, rather than nurturing it only in the laboratory.