CubicPV

As part of the Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a $71 million investment in research, development, and demonstration projects to grow the network of domestic manufacturers across the U.S. solar energy supply chain. 

The selected projects will address gaps in the domestic solar manufacturing capacity for supply chain including equipment, silicon ingots and wafers, and both silicon and thin-film solar cell manufacturing. The projects will also open new markets for solar technologies such as dual-use photovoltaic (PV) applications, including building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics. 

According to a recent announcement, Verde Technologies has attracted investment from multiple venture funds and industry veterans. Most notably, the former CEO of GE Power, Steve Bolze, has joined Verde as an investor and advisor to support the company’s continued growth.

“Verde stood out to me because of the pace at which the team is able to make progress toward changing the solar paradigm. It is clear that solar energy will play a dominant role in the renewable energy transition, especially with the tailwinds of recent legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act.” says Bolze. “Verde’s team and technology are poised to make solar manufacturing and deployment simpler, lower cost, and more accessible.”

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and CubicPV have developed mini solar modules based on perovskite cells treated with zinc trifluoromethane sulfonate [Zn(OOSCF₃)₂]. The scientists found that using a small amount of this zinc salt in the perovskite solution can address the issue of interstitial iodides, which are the most critical type of defects in perovskite solar cells that limits efficiency and stability. The zinc salt helps control the iodide defects in resultant perovskites ink and films. 

The scientists explained that this is a low-cost material that is used as an additive at a very small percentage in perovskite inks and that its use makes perovskite module fabrication more reproducible, which helps to also make it cheaper.

In December 2022, CubicPV announced plans to establish 10 GW of conventional mono wafer capacity in the United States. Now, CubicPV said it has halted its plans to build a major U.S. silicon wafer factory, citing a collapse in product prices and soaring construction costs. It was reported that the Company will instead be focusing on producing tandem perovskite solar modules.

As part of its restructuring scheme, the company reduced its workforce and eliminated positions tied to the U.S. factory effort. The Company said it would support the affected workers by providing severance packages and extended health benefits.

Verde Technologies, a perovskite-focused thin-film solar company, has announced a new exclusive partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Northern Illinois University (NIU) to work collaboratively on the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. 

By combining NREL's and NIU’s expertise with Verde's cutting-edge manufacturing techniques, this collaboration aims to unlock the potential of efficient, safe, low-cost perovskite solar panels at an unprecedented scale.

It was reported that U.S-based CubicPV secured US$103 million in equity financing. While it is meant to support its plans to develop a US silicon wafer production base, CubicPV also said that this capital will support its research into perovskite-silicon tandem technology. 

“Today’s announcement underscores the considerable progress we’ve made, the depth of our engineering competence and the strength of our technologies to deliver a more powerful solar future,” said Frank van Mierlo, CEO of CubicPV. “We thank SCG Cleanergy for their confidence in our manufacturing goals and product roadmap.”

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has announced that a team of researchers, led by MIT and including the University of California San Diego, has been selected to receive a $11.25 Million cost-shared award to establish a new research center that will advance the development of next-generation solar cells for commercial use.

A collaborative effort with CubicPV, solar startup Verde Technologies, and Princeton University, the center will bring together teams of researchers to support the creation of perovskite-silicon tandem solar modules. These are solar cells made of stacked materials—silicon paired with perovskites—that together absorb more of the solar spectrum than single materials, resulting in a dramatic increase in efficiency. Their potential to generate significantly more power than conventional solar cells could make a meaningful difference in the race to combat climate change and the transition to a clean-energy future.

U.S-based company CubicPV has announced plans to establish 10 GW of conventional mono wafer capacity in the United States. 

While CubicPV reports that its new factory will produce conventional silicon wafers, the company said it will continue research and development of its tandem modules, which reportedly offer more than 30% greater efficiency than the highest efficiency conventional modules. The design stacks two solar cells, with silicon on the bottom, powered by CubicPV’s Direct Wafer technology, and perovskite on the top, the company claims that the tandem design “will dramatically increase the power of every acre of solar deployed.”

Perovskite solar panels have been under intensive R&D, and it seems as if commercial production is right around the corner. Some pilot-scale production lines are already functional, and companies are now ramping up production of perovskite panels, using various technologies.

UK-based Oxford PV, for example, recently announced that it has completed the build-out of its 100 MW manufacturing site in Germany, and it is on track to start full production in 2022. China's Microquanta Semiconductor perovskite panel factory is reportedly also nearing production (which should have started late 2020, but updates have not been available since), and another China-based company, GCL, has raised around $15 million USD to expand its pilot-scale production factory to mass production (100 MW).

CubicPV is said to be in talks with the Indian government to participate in the performance linked incentives (PLI) scheme for solar equipment manufacturers. CubicPV was established as a result of a collaboration between Hunt Perovskite Technologies and 1366 Technologies.

CubicPV reportedly plans to invest $1.1 billion to set up 10 GW solar wafer and cells manufacturing capacity in India over the next five years. Frank Van Mierlo, CEO of CubicPV, said that the company is planning to bring its innovative products in the solar equipment category, such as wafers and semiconductors, to India.