As society advances into yet another new technological age, reflected in large part the by massive data centers needed to support accelerating applications in artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous systems, a critical demand is arising in tandem: the need for vast amounts of energy.
According to Breakthrough Energy, the world’s demand for energy is estimated to more than double by 2050, creating a significant need for scalable and innovative energy solutions.
Beyond Silicon, an Arizona State University startup founded by Zhengshan “Jason” Yu, is working to power a cleaner, more sustainable future by making solar energy more efficient, affordable and accessible. Through its technology, the company is producing tandem solar cells that exceedIa 30% efficiency to unlock the next generation of solar energy.
This milestone achievement has earned Beyond Silicon the recognition of being named a 2025 Breakthrough Energy Fellow, placing it among a globally vetted cohort of companies tackling some of the world’s most urgent climate challenges.
Founded by Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy is a global platform aimed at accelerating clean energy innovations and building industries of the future. The 2025 cohort of Breakthrough Energy Fellows consists of 45 innovators at 22 different startup ventures from around the world.
The Breakthrough Energy Fellows program helps climate-technology entrepreneurs take their ideas from lab to market. In addition, the program provides research and development funding, mentorship, hands-on technical guidance and access to its global network, all in effort to empower innovators to build the future of energy.
Yu, a doctoral alum of the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU, has spent years advancing tandem solar cell technologies alongside collaborators at the university and calls the announcement a major achievement.
“Being selected as a Breakthrough Energy Fellow is humbling and validating,” Yu says. “Personally, it represents recognition that our team’s eight years of research — ranging from fundamental device architecture breakthroughs to scalable manufacturing processes — can truly transform the solar industry.”
Yu also highlights the honor as critical for Beyond Silicon as a company.
“This fellowship is a pivotal moment,” Yu says. “It signals to the market, to potential customers, and to future investors that our technology isn’t just scientifically promising. It’s also commercially viable and supported by one of the world’s most respected global climate networks.”
Yu, who also is Beyond Silicon’s chief executive officer, says the program will help support key derisking technical milestones needed to bring the company’s product to market, and that the equally valuable mentorship from Breakthrough Energy Fellows experienced network will help avoid costly mistakes and accelerate commercialization.
For Zachary Holman, a professor and vice dean for research and innovation in the Fulton Schools at ASU, the recognition speaks to Beyond Silicon’s efficacy in solar energy ventures.
“The Breakthrough Energy Fellowship is recognition of both Beyond Silicon’s innovation in energy technology and its potential to change the energy marketplace — to have impact on our lives,” says Holman, who co-founded Beyond Silicon with Yu.
Delivering a breakthrough
Yu points to three key factors he believes helped differentiate Beyond Silicon in the highly competitive program.
First is Beyond Silicon’s technological approach, which offers a clear path to reduced manufacturing costs when compared to competing technologies.
The company’s core innovation is a device architecture that enables low-cost solution processing of perovskites on industry-standard textured silicon — something previously thought impractical.
“This innovation is the foundation to low-cost manufacturing of tandem solar cells, which can then be seamlessly integrated into the industry’s existing solar panel manufacturing as a cell-level replacement with no module redesign or new assembly processes,” he says. “Panel manufacturers simply swap our tandem cells for their current silicon cells and boost their panel efficiency.”
The efficiency threshold represents breaking past silicon’s fundamental limit of approximately 27%. Yu describes the benchmark not as an incremental improvement but rather accessing a new performance regime that transforms solar economics across the entire value chain.
“For manufacturers, 30% efficiency means they can produce 30% more power from the same materials, factory footprint and labor, dramatically improving their margins,” Yu says. “For our target customers, this efficiency boost allows them to increase gross margins while still lowering the cost to the end user, finally making U.S. solar manufacturing profitable and cost competitive.”
Next is Beyond Silicon’s market positioning and timing.
“We’re addressing a critical issue in the U.S. solar industry: 50-plus gigawatts of new manufacturing capacity that are locked out of advanced silicon cell technology due to foreign intellectual property and compliance requirements,” Yu says. “Our technology provides the IP-independent, high-efficiency solution that leapfrogs the existing silicon technologies and greatly increases the cost competitiveness of U.S.-made solar.”
Yu underscores the Beyond Silicon team as the third critical factor.
“Our mission aligns with what Breakthrough Energy is trying to achieve in reducing emissions at scale by at least 500 million tons per year,” he says. “We are executing that at a faster pace. We’ve already demonstrated 28% efficiency with scalable processes, fabricated working prototypes and secured letters of intent from U.S. customers.”
Energized by entrepreneurship
Beyond Silicon’s selection as a Breakthrough Energy Fellow underscores the role ASU plays in translating academic research into market-ready climate solutions.
“Beyond Silicon’s story is an ASU story,” Holman says. “The company was founded by ASU graduate students and faculty, its foundational technology is based on ASU intellectual property that the founders created through years of federally funded ASU research, and it has developed — and continues to advance — its technology using ASU Core Facilities located in ASU Innovation Zones.”
As Beyond Silicon eyes future growth, it retains its roots in ASU facilities. The company operates out of the ASU MacroTechnology Works facility, which serves as a working lab, fostering collaborations with industry partners in the private sector.
“Access to ASU’s solar and electronic materials infrastructure has enabled us to move rapidly from academic lab scale to pilot scale in a capital-efficient way,” Yu says. “These facilities allowed us to develop our product and iterate fast on production-grade tools without major upfront investment.”
On the horizon, Yu sees achieving long-term stability as a welcome challenge.
“While we’ve demonstrated excellent performance in accelerated testing, we will need to prove a 20 or more-year field lifetime to satisfy conservative solar buyers,” he says.
In addition, Beyond Silicon will aim to develop manufacturing partnerships to scale-up operations. Yu adds that moving from producing 6-inch prototypes to multi-megawatt or gigawatt production will require partnerships — from collaborations for manufacturing operations to market adoption of the new technologies.
“The fellowship’s resources help in accelerating the validation of our technology, and its network opens doors to strategic partnerships and helps us secure more pilot deployments, which then become reference cases for broader market adoption,” Yu says.
