King Charles suffered an embarrassing moment during an outing to Oxfordshire, where he toured the facilities of Oxford Photovoltaics (PV).
The monarch was left in fits of laughter as he unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit, which inadvertently fell to the floor.
His Majesty giggled as the plaque fell below his feet, which was quickly picked up by a member of Oxford PV.
Once replaced and returned to the stand, the King stood and smiled next to the plaque for photographers.
The King described the incident as a ‘disaster’
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PA
During his visit, the monarch praised Oxford PV for creating the next generation of solar panels as “wonderful” and made a joke about the “disaster” of unveiling his plaque.
The head of state has long been an advocate for sustainability and climate initiatives, frequently discussing the planet’s threats and taking practical steps, such as powering his Aston Martin with eco-fuel.
He told a group of staff: “I hope you can speed up the transition a bit”, which appeared to be a reference to shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy
The King continued: “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.
Once the plaque was picked up, the King smiled next to the piece of memorabilia
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PA
“But we need it all badly, all your products, fantastic… applicable on one or two roofs.”
Charles viewed the research and development lab of Oxford PV, established in 2010 as a spin-out from Oxford University.
The company has become a global leader in utilising light-sensitive perovskite to create solar panels that are over 20 per cent more efficient than traditional ones.
He examined an electron microscope image of the perovskite surface, a material layered onto silicon solar panels to boost their efficiency by absorbing various parts of the light spectrum.
The head of state has long been an advocate for sustainability and climate initiatives
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PA
The King was about 45 minutes late because bad weather caused him to change from a helicopter to a car for his trip to Oxford, believed to be from London.
The monarch apologised several times, joking about the delay.
His Majesty was presented with images of commercial applications of advanced solar panels that are not yet available to the public.
Charles appeared impressed by the potential uses in car manufacturing, aeronautics, and satellites.
His Majesty toured the facilities of Oxford PV
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PADuring the visit, Oxford PV’s chief executive, David Ward, noted that the company was shipping “pilot volumes” of products to early customers safely.
He said: “There’s been a decade of work, getting it from a brilliant piece of science into a real module that you see here, that we could give to a customer and they put on a roof.
“I don’t think one energy source will dominate all others, but solar right now is the cheapest form of energy generation and deals with security and energy transition.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.gbnews.com ’
