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Scott Wharton

CEO, Tandem PV · 1 appearance on the record.

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executivefounderinvestor@scottwharton ↗LinkedIn ↗tandempv.com ↗

Scott Wharton leads Tandem PV, a Silicon Valley-based climate tech company commercializing high-efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem solar panels. He previously served as Vice President and General Manager at Logitech, scaling its video collaboration business to over $1 billion in revenue, and earlier founded the cloud video conferencing startup Vidtel.

13statements → 7claims → 6claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 3.69/5average certainty → 1.85/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

2 supported 3 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not yet assessed how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 6 assertions · 3 opinions · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Scott argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Wharton: Solar, Wind, and Batteries Accounted for Over 90% of New US Energy
“So last year more than 90% of new energy in the U.S. Came from solar, wind, and batteries. So we're already heavily transitioned to solar. In the first two months of this year, 98% of our new energy came from solar and wind.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 9:36 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Wharton: Under 10% of US solar energy comes from residential rooftops
“Less than 10% of all solar energy in the US is, is on the rooftop for a house. So, 82% of the energy last year was for these farms that you drive by and fields and highways and stuff.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 2:08 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Scott Wharton on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Scott Wharton said on Innovators & Investors that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Wharton: China Subsidizes Cleantech with Free Capital, Land, and Below-Cost Dumping
“Well, the Chinese basically in certain sectors like solar and cars and batteries, they give away free land, free labor, free capital. Sometimes it's slave labor in some cases. So that's not like, that's not free trade. And then even with all that, then they se…”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 11:37 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Opinion
Wharton: China dominates clean tech because Beijing funds mid-stage scaling
“And I think that's part of the reason why the Chinese are winning is that they, their government is giving money into this particular area where companies need it most. And our government is not doing it.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 14:51 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Assertion Partly supported
Wharton: China Controls 95% of Silicon Cells and 98% of Wafers
“So, 95% of the silicon technology for the cells comes from China. 98 is the wafer technology, which is part of it, so they, they're almost doing the whole thing. And with perovskites, it's a little more like fifty-fifty. So, four companies in the US, one in Eu…”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 8:45 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Disclosure
Tandem PV is building its first factory in California
“We haven't announced yet, but it's going to be in California.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 34:43 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Opinion
Wharton: California neglects manufacturing incentives due to AI and software wealth
“There's such an embarrassment of riches from software and AI. I don't think they really feel the need to compete on manufacturing.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 36:19 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Assertion Partly supported
Wharton: Tandem PV Panels Reach 28% Efficiency Versus Silicon's 21%
“By having the two layers, they both capture different parts of the light spectrum, which allows us to get to this 28% efficiency. So what that means effectively is for every hundred beams of light hitting the panel, we can take 28 of them and convert them into…”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 6:59 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Prediction Open · timeframe Aug 2028
Wharton: Tandem PV Panels Will Reach Mid-30s Efficiency in Three Years
“We think we're gonna get to the mid-thirties sometime in the next medium term, let's say three years, plus or minus.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 7:39 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Disclosure
Tandem PV raises $50 million to build its first commercial factory
“We've been really fortunate in that we basically broke through that by just raising a fifty million dollar round. So that's allowing us to build our first factory.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 14:23 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Disclosure
Tandem PV targets panel sales in first half of 2026
“The plan is that we have prototypes by the end of the year, and then we start selling in the first half of 26.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 31:48 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Assertion Contradicted
Wharton: Under 10% of US solar energy comes from residential rooftops
“Less than 10% of all solar energy in the US is, is on the rooftop for a house. So, 82% of the energy last year was for these farms that you drive by and fields and highways and stuff.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 2:08 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Assertion Partly supported
Wharton: Solar panels represent only 20% of total solar farm costs
“Only 20% of a solar farm's cost is the panel today. It's more like the land, the labor to install it, The electronics around it.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 2:23 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Assertion Supported
Wharton: Solar, Wind, and Batteries Accounted for Over 90% of New US Energy
“So last year more than 90% of new energy in the U.S. Came from solar, wind, and batteries. So we're already heavily transitioned to solar. In the first two months of this year, 98% of our new energy came from solar and wind.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 9:36 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV
Assertion Supported
Wharton: Eclipse operates a $5 billion manufacturing-focused venture fund
“There's a VC called Eclipse Capital. They're based in Palo Alto and they have a five billion dollar fund. And what's interesting about them is they're not purely a climate VC. They're a manufacturing VC.”
Scott Wharton Aug 6, 2025 ▶ 15:50 Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Next-Gen Perovskite Solar Panels and Climate Tech Investment Challenges with Tandem PV Aug 6, 2025 30m
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