Solar Energy's Second Act — EP 88 Joel Jean

As a woo-woo Californian woman, I’m an appreciator of crystals and the healing properties of sunlight. It turns out I have a lot in common with this week’s guest.

In this episode, Ashlee sits down with Joel Jean, CEO of Swift Solar, a San Carlos-based startup trying to create new solar technology using synthetic perovskite. We previously published a story about Swift, if you’re wondering what the fuck perovskite is! In short, it’s a crystal that turns sunlight into electricity better and cheaper than the silicon currently used in solar panels. This stuff is finicky though, and experts have doubts, as they always do — but Jean explains how Swift is closing in on a solution.

“Everyone and their mom can make a perovskite that’s decently efficient,” Jean says, but no one seems capable of making it as durable as silicon. The material degrades under heat, light and its own moving ions. This is obviously not the ideal situation for solar panels that sit outside for decades.

So why not stick with silicon? Well, the laws of physics haven’t quite blessed it. A silicon panel can turn, at most, about 30 percent of the sunlight it gets into electricity, and today’s panels usually churn out about 25 percent. If they’re able to successfully layer perovskite on top, that pushes the ceiling to 45 percent.

These are fabulous gains in the solar nerd world, and we could really use some innovation here because we are one very, very energy-hungry species. And of course, this is Core Memory, so you know where this is headed: China and AI.

China makes 90 percent of the world’s solar cells and wafers, installs more panels than the rest of the planet combined, and builds the machines that nearly every U.S. solar factory runs on. (Except for Swift, apparently!). That dependency is, as always, a risk.

Meanwhile, AI data centers need more power than God, and the folks making models are happy to welcome any new gains in that department. Some are even putting their money on it; renowned AI researcher Jeff Dean has invested Swift.

Charge your crystals, folks. We’re perovskite-maxxing.

IN THIS EPISODE

This Is The U.S.’s Last Chance At Solar — Core Memory
Swift Solar
Meyer Burger acquisition
Joel's "solar for AGI" piece

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Intro
04:56 — How The U.S. Lost Solar
12:36 — Maxed-Out Physics
20:03 — How China Won
27:53 — What Is Perovskite?
36:52 — The 30-Year Problem
45:41 — China's Scale-First Bet
51:00 — The Meyer Burger Deal
58:50 — Can Solar Power AI?
1:09:43 — Patents, China And The Machines
1:22:15 — Solar For AGI