"China rushes to market with next-gen solar cell"

From Asia Times, June 21:

Gaining ground in global race to raise PSC cell efficiency, some Chinese firms have started production to secure a first mover edge 

Chinese scientists have successfully boosted the efficiency of a new generation solar cell to 28% in a race with foreign rivals who achieved the result in December 2018 and have since pushed that level to 33.2% in April this year.

Not waiting for solar perfection, some Chinese firms, including a company established by China’s leading researcher, already have gone into production of perovskite and silicon tandem solar cells (PSC). 

This so-called third-generation solar cell is said to be able to convert 50-75% more sunlight into electricity than the traditional silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell.

The product is also 95% cheaper than the silicon solar cell as its key raw material is methylammonium lead iodide, making it a potential great option for countries that want to switch to solar power to meet their carbon neutrality targets.

Tan Hairen, a professor at Nanjing University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and his team announced their PSC technology “breakthroughs” in an article published by Nature, a London-based weekly scientific journal, on June 8....

....MUCH MORE

Our last post on perovskite, May 12, 2023, was a rather odd story:

First Solar Buys European Solar Firm. First Solar (the acquirer) Jumps 25% (FSLR)

Dammit, dammit, dammit.*

Here's today's news from pv-magazine:

First Solar acquires perovskite specialist Evolar

First Solar has agreed to pay $38 million to buy Swedish manufacturing startup Evolar AB, as it seeks to expand development of high-efficiency tandem PV tech.

....First Solar said it is buying Swedish manufacturer Evolar AB in a bid to accelerate its efforts to develop tandem PV technology. The U.S. solar module maker will initially pay around $38 million, but it might later pay an additional $42 million, subject to certain technical milestones being achieved in the future.

First Solar said in a statement on Friday that the acquisition will accelerate the development of next generation PV technology, including high-efficiency tandem devices. It aims to integrate Evolar’s know-how with its existing research and development streams, intellectual property portfolio, and expertise in developing and commercially scaling thin-film PV.....

 ...MUCH MORE

Now perovskite  is going to be a big deal, but it's not yet. And the idea of somehow combining FSLR's current low-cost, low-efficiency cadmium telluride approach with the ultra-high efficiencies that are already being achieved with perovskite in the lab are potentially very profitable but... methinks today's stock action looks more like some shorts covering in fear of the unknown rather than new-position buyers sitting down and doing a discounted cash analysis that results in a "By George, this company is worth  25.49% more than it was yesterday. ($229.88 up $46.69)

*We got rid of our proprietary "What's on T.V. Timing Model":

So, Why Were the NGO's and the Transnational Orgs. Making Noise About Burundi A Couple Years Ago? (RBW: LON)

We have an early warning system that can sometimes point to where the (geographical) action might show up and in 2016 and 2017 Burundi came into focus.
The early warning system's technique can also be used to hint at mergers and acquisitions but had a rather significant flaw as noted in a 2014 post:

WARNING: Our proprietary "What's on TV" buyout model (backtested to February) has proven skill in identifying one of the parties to an acquisition however THE COMPANY WE IDENTIFY ALMOST ALWAYS TURNS OUT TO BE THE ACQUIRER, NOT THE ACQUIREE. 

As far as directional bets are concerned, this is not all that helpful.
And getting away from directional, it is our experience that truth-in-advertising for the pair trade risk arbitrage dark arts would put the emphasis on the risk part of the term rather than the arbitrage.

Anyway....where was I? Ah, early warning. Here are a couple of our Burundi posts....

By-the-bye, First Solar has come back a bit, $184.22 at the close today.