Japan’s Sekisui Chemical launched an agrivoltaics project in partnership with Terra, a unit of Japan-based Citizen Energy Chiba, to test the peformance of its perovskite solar cell technology and the effect of the PV system on plants.

Japan-based Sekisui Chemical, a developer of a roll-to-roll process for manufacturing perovskite PV panels, announced an agrivoltaic project in partnership with Terra, an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor and a unit of Japan-based Citizen Energy Chiba.

Sekisui announced that the project’s perovskite modules will be based on its 30 cm-wide films made in a roll-to-roll manufacturing process and its sealing, film formation, materials and process technology. The Sekisui perovskite solar devices reportedly have 10 years equivalent of outdoor durability and 15% power conversion efficiency. The company said it is currently working on improving durability and power generation efficiency, as well as scaling up to web widths of 1 m.

The modules have a convex lens-shaped cross-section and are based on a design from Terra, which has rights to relevant patents held by Citizen Energy Chiba. The novel modules are part of a lighter-weight system meant to provide wind load and center of gravity balancing without adding the extra weight that would be required with conventional modules, according to the manufacturer.

Both the module design and the “ultra-slim” mounting and anchoring method from Terra will be validated over the duration of the project. Performance data as well as crop data will also be collected, verified, and compared with predicted values.

Agrivoltaics, which is also referred to in Japan as “solar sharing”, is a specialty of Terra, according to the project team. Its plans include testing agrivoltaics with a variety of crops in Japan, including paddy fields, as well as field tests on idle and abandoned agricultural land.