King Charles suffered an awkward blunder during a visit near Oxford.
The monarch was at Yarnton on Friday, March 27 to unveil a plaque at Oxford Photovoltaics Limited (Oxford PV).
The company is a trailblazing Oxfordshire enterprise developing advanced solar panels capable of converting more of the sun's spectrum into clean, affordable energy.
However, when the king went to reveal the plaque, it accidentally fell to the ground - to the amusement of people in the room.
He then quipped “disaster” after it tumbled to the ground from an easel.
After being greeted by the executive team, the King received an overview of the business and watched a demonstration of the ‘magic material’ perovskite, responsible for the higher efficiency of the solar technology.
In the laboratory, he met the technology team, toured the facility and viewed components under microscopes.
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His Majesty heard from staff about the real-world applications of the solar panels and their sustainable impact on the environment.
He told a group of staff “I hope you can speed up the transition a bit” – an apparent reference to the aim of moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The King added: “I think you’re remarkable, how you’ve managed to keep it all going, but it does take time to get to the point where you can actually commercialise all these things.
“But we need it all badly, all your products, fantastic – applicable on one or two roofs.”
The company employs around 150 highly skilled professionals worldwide, including approximately 60 staff based at its R&D and global headquarters in Oxford.
Found at Oxford Pioneer Park in Yarnton, the company is a pioneer in perovskite-on-silicon tandem photovoltaic technology, a type of solar cell.
Perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar technology is said to bring the next era for solar innovation, offering a pathway to significantly higher performance than traditional silicon solar.
Oxford PV is a global leader in perovskite solar technology, developing a scalable and high-performance clean power product.
With a portfolio of more than 400 granted patents, Oxford PV’s tandem technology delivers "materially higher energy output than conventional silicon cells", the company said.
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