Financial - Page 16

GreatCell Solar, developer of solar technologies, was awarded 700,000 euro (about $825 million USD) in a European Union Horizon 2020 project known as Apolo. The grant to Greatcell's application has occurred through its 100% Italian subsidiary, Greatcell Solar Italy located in Rome, that aims to commercialize perovskite solar technology.

Much of the work involved will investigate advanced technology for higher efficiencies, longer life, and improved encapsulation of PSC-enabled flexible substrates, such as metals and polymers. These are all critical in the successful translation of the 3rd generation PSC photovoltaic (PV) technology from the laboratory to the factory and satisfying PV industry accreditation (IEC 61215).

Oxford Photovoltaics is to receive financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for its planned pilot site in Germany. The bank is considering providing EUR 15 million ($17.6 million USD) for the project, which will turn an existing PV thin-film module factory in Germany into a "first-of-its-kind" plant for the production of tandem silicon-perovskite PV cells.

According to EIB, the site will allow the company to demonstrate its perovskite technology at full wafer scale in pilot volumes and deploy perovskite on silicon tandem cells. The total cost of the project is EUR 30 million.

Researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina received two new grants that together total more than $1 million for researching related to nuclear energy, in which they will focus on perovskite materials.

One of the researchers will be working on ways to dispose of tritium, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors that makes its way through the ecosystem into the water and food supply, posing a radioactive health hazard if ingested. The goal is to develop a membrane similar to an air or oil filter that would separate tritium from the water that is used in creating nuclear energy. Another scientists' grant pays for a specialty microscope that will be the only one of its kind in South Carolina. Collaborators are involved in both projects. The researchers will experiment with different materials in the form of powders, primarily focusing on the naturally occurring mineral perovskite.

GreatCell Solar, the Australia-based materials company formerly called Dyesol, has been awarded a AUS$6m (around $4.75 million USD) grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for the Perovskite Solar Cell Technology - Large Area Module Development Project.

The company has also set out to raise around $5 million AUS ($4 million USD) as part of the project funding. This should enable Greatcell to accelerate the scale-up and prototyping activities to commercialize the company's technology.

GreatCell Solar (formerly Dyesol), has announced a $5 million AUD (almost $4 million USD) share purchase plan to raise funds to continue work on technology scale-up, testing and accreditation, equipment procurement and facilities fit-out, as well as for general working capital purposes.

Greatcell is offering eligible shareholders the opportunity to purchase fully paid ordinary shares (New Shares) at an issue price of $0.18 per New Share, which is a discount of approximately 13.5% to the volume weighted average price of Greatcell's shares on the ASX during the 5 trading days immediately prior to today. All New Shares will be quoted on ASX and will rank equally with other fully paid ordinary shares on issue.

Support from the US Department of Energy (DOE) will be given to several US-based development teams working to commercialize perovskite photovoltaics technology. In the latest round of funding awarded under its SunShot Initiative, the DOE will be giving $46.2 million in support of 48 different photovoltaics projects ' with total funding around $65 million (when private-sector contributions are included). However, SunShot funding may be prone to changes and budget cuts proposed by the new Trump administration.

The long-term target of the funding is to achieve a levelized cost of solar-generated energy of $0.03 per kilowatt-hour (for utility-scale systems) by 2030. The SunShot initiative also has interim goals for 2020 of $0.06 per kWh for utility-scale PV, and $0.09 per kWh for residential installations. The DOE estimates the current cost of residential and utility PV at $0.18 and $0.07 per kWh respectively.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) launched its new investment plan, defining the distribution of the $800 million USD fund over the next few years, with solar PV innovation one of the main new areas of focus - including perovskite-based PV.

The plan, titled 'Innovating Energy', puts forward four new priorities and all new funding applications have been assessed using these criteria. Among other points, ARENA will prioritize improving cell and module efficiency in silicon, perovskite and tandem cells. It will also focus on durability of PV modules with new encapsulation techniques to address degradation and new tools to uncover defects. It will also look across the range of balance of system (BOS) technologies to reduce costs in wiring, switches and inverters. New products with flexible and transparent applications will also be examined with an emphasis on turning R&D into manufacturing supply chains.

The California Energy Commission, along with the Regents of the University of California, approved a $1.45 million grant to researchers at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) to support the development of perovskite solar cells.

USCD is home to varied perovskite-based research, among which is work focused on understanding the charge transport and recombination mechanisms in perovskite based solar cells.

Dyesol has announced that it has been awarded a grant of 2.5 miilion AUD (almost $2 million USD) under the Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P) programme. The grant, administered by the Australian Department of Industry, is for an 18 month project titled, "Large Area Perovskite Photovoltaic Material Coating on Glass Substrate" and complements Dyesol's Major Area Demonstration (MAD) prototype development activities.

Dyesol will lead the project and other partners are CSR Building Products, and its subsidiary, CSR Viridian, and CSIRO. This activity aims to advance the goal of commercializing Perovskite Solar Cell (PSC) photovoltaic technology on glass substrates.

Oxford Photovoltaics recently announced an equity investment of £8.1 million (around US $10.2 million), adding to the £8.7 million first close investment announced in October 2016. The bulk of this investment will reportedly come from three new strategic investors: Statoil ASA, Legal & General Capital and a technology-focused, innovative family fund investor.

Oxford PV recently announced the acquisition of a pilot line site in Germany and, in the beginning of December 2016, announced a Joint Development Agreement with a major solar panel manufacturer to scale the technology towards commercialization. This additional injection of funds will hopefully help accelerate these development activities as well as support the next generation product research in the UK.