Perovskite tandem provider Swift Solar to explore telecom tower integration

The MIT/Stanford spinoff announced a collaboration with American Tower Corporation to evaluate high energy density solar panels for telecom towers.

Swift Solar, a perovskite tandem solar cell manufacturer, announced a partnership with American Tower Corporation, a Fortune 500 wireless telecommunications tower infrastructure provider, to explore integrating perovskite-silicon tandem solar panels with telecom towers.

The company’s perovskite tandem technology was developed with exclusive intellectual property from MIT, Stanford and NREL, holding over 40 patents and $60 million in funding from venture capital, strategic investors and government agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense.

Perovskites are an emerging alternative solar cell technology touted for their high conversion efficiency, able to squeeze more electricity out of a smaller surface area. Tandem cells integrate a layer of perovskites with a layer of traditional silicon-based solar cells, thereby boosting efficiency.

“Perovskite-silicon tandem cells have achieved record efficiencies of 34.8% in 2025, compared to 27.3% for record silicon cells and about 20% for standard solar panels today. That’s a 30% jump in power output from the same footprint,” said Swift Solar.

Perovskites are lightweight, less materials-intensive and can be produced at lower temperatures than their silicon counterparts. A mitigating factor in the advancement of perovskites is their ability to remain durable and retain efficiency over time in the field. However, Swift Solar said its tandem product exhibits no degradation over 3,000-plus hours of high-temperature operation.

The company said the collaboration with American Tower Corporation addresses growing demand for solutions with higher energy density. This demand is driven by both the surge in electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the limitations of traditional power infrastructure due to grid constraints.

By delivering more electricity output per square foot, perovskite tandems could pose a solution to space-constrained sites like telecommunications towers. American Tower operates approximately 42,000 communications sites in the U.S. and over 149,000 sites globally.

“This collaboration demonstrates the commercial readiness of our perovskite tandem platform across high-value markets beyond traditional utility-scale solar,” said Joel Jean, chief executive officer, Swift Solar.