Rethink Energy 229: Rio Tinto bets on future lithium price recovery; trends in TOPCon solar technology

Episode notes

Rio Tinto has announced a further $900 million investment into lithium mining in Chile - we discuss the inexorable logic that today's 2x overcapacity will give way, due to constantly growing demand, to a second lithium shortage within the next 10 years. JinkoSolar's whitepaper on their latest TOPCon solar module, which boasts 24.8% efficiency, demonstrates that technological progress in silicon PV has yet to slow - but there are only five years left before the theoretical Shockley-Queisser limit on photovoltaic performance per square meter is effectively reached. After that, perovskites will be the primary remaining avenue for further research.

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