Oxford PV has placed the first in a planned series of equipment orders with Meyer Burger for a turnkey 100 MW silicon heterojunction manufacturing line, as it prepares to launch volume production at its industrial compound in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany.

The company said it will soon follow this initial order with another request for perovskite top cell production equipment. It plans to integrate that supplementary equipment with the 100 MW cell line in Brandenburg an der Havel, according to an emailed statement. The plan is to launch perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cell production on a complete 250 MW line by the end of 2020.

“With our first order placed, we are well on our journey to becoming the world’s first perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cell manufacturer,” said Frank P. Averdung, CEO of Oxford PV. “Building on Meyer Burger’s expertise, we are accelerating the time to market for our perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells.”

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The company said it will continue to place new equipment orders with Meyer Burger in phases over the next few months. Future orders will include a second silicon heterojunction solar cell line and associated perovskite top cell production equipment.

In July, Oxford PV — a perovskite solar specialist that was spun off from Oxford University in 2010 — raised £65 million ($81.8 million) after closing a series D funding round. The equipment order from Meyer Burger follows a strategic partnership that the two sides signed back in March. The companies want to accelerate the mass production of perovskite on silicon heterojunction (HJT) tandem cells.