How First Solar Is Building a Perovskite Solar Program

A second perovskite patent license

On October 29, 2026, the day it reported third-quarter results, First Solar announced a non-exclusive license to CubicPV’s issued and pending US patents covering perovskite solar technology. The license supports First Solar’s development of photovoltaic devices built with a perovskite semiconductor for the US utility-scale, commercial and industrial, and residential markets, and applies to sales and distribution of those products in the US. Other terms were not disclosed.¹

It is First Solar’s second perovskite patent license of 2026. The first, with Oxford PV, was announced on February 24, 2026 and covers potential manufacturing and distribution in the US, excluding crystalline silicon semiconductors.² GSR covered that agreement when it was announced.

Chief executive Mark Widmar said commercializing a new generation of solar technology requires development and manufacturing scale-up work by the company’s R&D teams, and “freedom to operate, which is what this agreement helps secure.” The licenses add to an internal program that includes the May 2023 acquisition of Swedish perovskite developer Evolar, a development line in Ohio and a larger pilot line there.³

Why a cadmium telluride manufacturer is developing perovskites

First Solar’s modules use cadmium telluride (CdTe), a thin-film semiconductor deposited on glass. Most solar modules made worldwide use crystalline silicon cells. In its FY2025 annual report, First Solar cited an independently certified CdTe research-cell efficiency of 23.1% and a module aperture-area efficiency of 19.9%.⁴

Perovskites are a family of crystalline compounds that can also be deposited as thin films. First Solar’s FY2025 10-K says they have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of solar modules. The company presents its experience of scaling thin-film production as the basis for its approach: the Evolar announcement described combining Evolar’s know-how with First Solar’s “expertise in developing and commercially scaling thin film PV.”³

Evolar was founded in 2019 by veterans of the copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film industry to develop equipment and processes for a tandem technology using perovskite thin films. As of May 2023, it held the 23.6% world record for a CIGS research cell. Widmar said then that First Solar anticipated that “high efficiency tandem PV modules will define the future.”

How the program has developed since 2023

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The pilot line’s schedule has held through 2026. In February the company expected operational readiness in early 2027;⁶ in October it gave the first half of 2027.¹ According to both license releases, the development line has allowed First Solar to meet internal milestones for “initial-stage efficiency, stability, and manufacturability objectives.”²

Two licenses and First Solar’s TOPCon patents

Both licenses are non-exclusive and limited to the US market, and neither release disclosed payments, royalties or duration.^1,2 A non-exclusive license leaves CubicPV and Oxford PV free to license the same patents to other manufacturers. The CubicPV release does not say whether crystalline silicon is excluded, as it is under the Oxford PV license. CubicPV describes its own development work as perovskite tandem technology.

Widmar linked both agreements to respecting intellectual property. In February he said the Oxford PV license aligned with the company’s “longstanding positions on respecting and safeguarding intellectual property rights.” In October he said the CubicPV agreement was consistent with the company’s view that intellectual property rights should be respected.

First Solar also enforces patents of its own. It acquired a portfolio of TOPCon patents, covering a crystalline-silicon cell design it does not manufacture, through its 2013 purchase of TetraSun, and announced plans to license and enforce them in July 2024. On September 15, 2026, it said it would withdraw its Section 337 complaint at the US International Trade Commission and continue its district court cases, which had been stayed during that investigation, including those against affiliates of Canadian Solar, JinkoSolar, T1 Energy and Trina Solar.⁸ All four companies appear alongside First Solar on GSR’s solar stocks list. In TOPCon the company is a patent holder seeking license income or damages; in perovskites it is a licensee.

What management said on the Q3 2026 call

Perovskites featured in management’s prepared remarks on October 29, 2026. Widmar said the Ohio pilot line remained on track for operational readiness in the first half of 2027. He said the line would enable field deployment of modules to validate “the manufacturing, performance, and durability profile of this next-generation thin film technology before we undertake broader scaling decisions.”⁹

On the same call, Bradley said perovskite-related spending for 2026, originally forecast at about $100 million, was now expected to total about $120 million, and that it would increase again in 2027.¹⁰ He named higher perovskite R&D and legal spending on the TOPCon patents as the main additions to core operating expenses in 2026, offset by South Carolina start-up costs moving into mid-2027.

None of the eight analysts who asked questions on the call raised perovskites. Most questions concerned bookings and module pricing after the August 2026 Section 232 proclamation on imports of polysilicon and its derivatives; others covered a government grant receivable, possible exclusions from the proclamation and a lawsuit.⁸

What the program costs

First Solar reports research and development as a single line in its income statement. Total R&D expense rose from $152.3 million in FY2023 to $191.4 million in FY2024 and $233.4 million in FY2025.⁴ As of October 2026, the company said it had invested more than $2 billion in thin-film R&D, including its perovskite program.¹

In 2026 the quarterly figures have included perovskite work explicitly. R&D expense was about $76 million in Q2 2026; management attributed the year-over-year increase to perovskite development and an impairment of R&D equipment that had dropped out of its technology roadmap.⁷ In Q3 2026, R&D expense of about $67 million reflected continued investment in the technology roadmap, including perovskite development.⁹

Since February 2026, First Solar has also given a separate estimate of perovskite-related R&D expense in its annual guidance. That 2026 estimate was $100 million on February 24, 2026 and about $120 million on October 29, 2026.^5,10

Where perovskites sit behind CuRe

First Solar’s nearer-term technology change is CuRe, a modification of its existing CdTe semiconductor that the company says improves temperature and degradation performance and so increases the energy a module produces over its life.⁵ The rollout is phased. The Perrysburg Series 6 lead line was converted in Q1 2026, and the first Series 7 conversion, at the company’s India factory, is expected to begin in Q1 2027 (as stated October 29, 2026).⁹

The Q4 2025 results presentation set out the sequence on a slide titled “Thin-Film: Key to Unlocking Next-Gen Solar”, with CuRe as the near-term program and perovskite efficiency and stability as the next generation. The Q3 2026 presentation listed the South Carolina expansion, perovskites and CuRe as the uses of 2026 capital expenditure to date.¹⁰

What other manufacturers have disclosed

Some perovskite developers have published figures that First Solar has not. GCL Technology, a Hong Kong-listed polysilicon producer, reported in its H1 2026 interim results that a perovskite-silicon tandem module production line at its Kunshan GCL subsidiary, which it described as the world’s first at gigawatt scale, had entered stable operation. It said a 2,042 cm² pilot-line tandem module reached 30.23% conversion efficiency, a figure the company did not describe as independently certified.¹¹

Canadian Solar, which makes crystalline silicon modules, has been more cautious about timing. On its Q2 2026 earnings call on August 27, 2026, executive chairman and chief technology officer Shawn Qu said perovskite reliability “will require another 5-10 years of validation before large-scale ground deployment,” and that space applications could be the first commercial market for tandem cells.¹² Durability is also the question First Solar has said its pilot-line modules will test in the field before it makes broader scaling decisions.⁹

The 2027 pilot line and open questions

The pilot line’s operational readiness, expected in the first half of 2027 as of October 29, 2026, is the next milestone the company has set out publicly. Widmar’s October 2026 remarks place broader scaling decisions after field deployment of pilot-line modules.⁹

Several items remain open. First Solar has not published efficiency, stability or durability figures for its perovskite modules. Its releases describe internal milestones being met without giving figures,^1,2 and its Q4 2025 results presentation said its perovskite reliability results were believed to be comparable to the top of the field, without publishing data.⁵ It has not given a date for commercial production or a capital budget for perovskite manufacturing capacity, and the financial terms of the Oxford PV and CubicPV licenses have not been made public.