The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy boldly claims that the transition to net zero is “the economic opportunity of the century”. One that could bring “significant benefits for households, communities, businesses, and the economy through good jobs, growth, energy security and lower bills.” To achieve this, the Strategy calls for consistent, decisive action, leveraging the UK’s enterprising innovation ecosystem, and making an unwavering commitment to investing in the eight highest potential sectors (IS-8).
Cambridge Photon Technologies (CPT) is proud to support the Modern Industrial Strategy with our Photon Multiplier – an advanced, world-first material that enables the highest efficiency energy generation with current solar panel technology, helping to power our nation’s clean energy goals.
Accelerating to net zero
The Strategy emphasises that “there can be no plan for economic stability or sustainable growth that does not include a credible plan for net zero”. With global competition intensifying to gain a “foothold in rapidly growing markets for clean energy technologies”, CPT’s Photon Multiplier directly addresses this challenge and turns it into a tremendous opportunity for UK industry.
Our drop-in solution, which integrates directly into solar panels without changes in manufacturing lines and processes, solves one of solar’s most urgent challenges: the performance ceiling of silicon-based photovoltaic technology. Our Photon Multiplier is the only commercially attractive solution that can push solar panels’ efficiency beyond 28%, helping to deliver more clean energy from the same footprint – without major disruption or investment in new production lines. By increasing efficiency, we reduce the cost of solar energy, unlock better returns on investment, and help the industry to reach net zero faster.
The clean energy superpower mission
With solar leading the global shift away from fossil fuels, CPT’s innovative technology presents an opportunity to reshape the industry – delivering not just cleaner power but strategic, economic, and geopolitical value. As the Strategy clearly states “electrified technologies can be far more efficient than fossil-fuel equivalents, making firms more productive. They can also reduce our reliance on fossil fuel imports, making the UK more resilient to disruption and price volatility on international markets.”
Tackling high industrial electricity costs, which is one of the blockers to the UK’s future growth, will also be key; “high electricity prices and grid connection delays are a barrier to electrification in our energy-intensive industries and to the delivery of our net zero commitments”. One of the benefits of our technology is the lower Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE), higher efficiency means that businesses and consumers alike can generate more energy with the same number of panels, lowering the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced. And since more energy can be produced from a single solar panel, fewer are needed to meet the same energy demand. This reduces the use of raw materials (such as silicon, glass and metals), lowers the emissions associated with panel manufacturing, and results in a smaller carbon footprint for the solar industry. Efficiency-improving tech like our Photon Multiplier will reduce the environmental impact of producing solar panels whilst increasing their performance, enhancing the overall sustainability of the industry – a result that is fully aligned with the Strategy’s goals to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change.
We must exploit opportunities before they’re gone.
As the Strategy candidly admits, the UK is “too exposed to global volatility and too sluggish to take advantage of transitions like the move to homegrown clean energy”. A new approach for a new era is needed. Technology like ours directly supports this conviction – it’s a quick, pain-free, drop-in solution which adds value to >1TW of installed PV manufacturing assets worldwide. Because we’re changing what solar can do, without changing how it’s made, rapid deployment and a swift ROI underpins our technology, helping to accelerate the homegrown clean energy transition.
Innovation and investment must be rewarded.
Central to the government’s Strategy will be the principle that “innovation and investment must be rewarded… [which] will have long-term productivity benefits, driven by the transition to a more resource-efficient, resilient, and sustainable economy”. CPT represents exactly the kind of “cutting-edge research, technologies, and commercial applications” the UK’s £86 billion R&D investment aims to support – translating breakthrough advanced materials innovation into market-ready solutions that can compete globally. This approach to leveraging private investment is crucial if we want to continue competing on a global scale; with solar efficiency improvements becoming increasingly difficult to achieve, breakthrough technologies like ours represent critical moments where UK innovation can establish lasting competitive advantage. Whilst other nations subsidise manufacturing, the UK’s strength lies in high-value innovation that can be sold and deployed globally.
This is about positive choices
The Modern Industrial Strategy is “about positive choices: backing eight sectors (the IS-8) with the highest potential, and the frontier industries at their leading edge – and targeting the places and clusters across the UK that support those sectors, to increase national productivity, strengthen our economic security and resilience, and support our environmental goals and the net zero transition”. If the government can deliver what it promises – extensive investment, fearlessly backing technological innovation, and ensuring net zero underpins every effort – then the opportunities laid out in the Strategy truly are “profound and exciting”.
As advanced materials innovators, CPT is primed and ready to help the UK use technology for the good of the country and its people; achieving net zero, ensuring energy security, and “transforming what is possible in every walk of life”.
Recent Comments