Japan-based startup PXP Corporation and JGC Japan Corporation, a unit of JGC Corporation, are collaborating on a 1 kW one-year project to trial lightweight chalcopyrite panels in Yokohama City.
May 21, 2025
Valerie Thompson
JGC Japan Corporation, an engineering, procurement, and construction unit of Japan-based JGC Holdings Corporation, and PXP Corporation, a developer of flexible, lightweight PV module technologies, are partnering on a one-year long, 1 kW, grid-connected trial of chalcopyrite (CuInSe2*) solar panels on a building located in Yokohama City.
The CuInSe2 technology used has an energy bandgap of 1.0eV*.
The PXP Corporation prototypes are installed at a JGC facility in Yokohama City on a building with a surface that mimics the type of folded-plate roofs typical in Japanese factories and warehouses.
Hiroki Sugimoto, CEO of PXP confirmed to pv magazine that the 1 kW system is grid-connected and that the modules weigh 2 kg per square meter (m2) with power output ranging from 100 to 120 W/m2.
PXP has plans to make 160 to 180 W/m2 chalcopyrite modules and it is also developing perovskite-chalcopyrite tandem cell technology. “When it comes to perovskite-chalcopyrite tandem cells, our target is 260 to 280W/m2,” said Sugimoto.
The panels in the study are secured with a novel sheet-based solution developed by JGC to quickly and securely install the lightweight PV panels on industrial roofs. The mounting technology, which is pre-commercial, relies on a heat-shielding polymer sheet with the flexible PV modules on top, and held in place by a metal tube component with a gripper cutout.
Early results indicate that one worker could potentially install 100 square meters per day using the JGC mounting system. It is reportedly also much more easily detached than competing types of non-penetrating solar panel mounting systems.
The project began in April for a duration of approximately one year.
PXP Corporation has recently secured JPY 1.5 billion ($9.98 million) in a round led by Japan’s Softbank Corp. to move forward with its plan to build a 25 MW chalcopyrite module factory.
*On May 21, 2025, this article was corrected to reflect that the chalcopyrite technology is not CuGaSe2 rather it is CuInSe2, and the bandgap is 1.0eV. not 1.7eV.
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