Financial - Page 17

UK-based Oxford Photovoltaics, founded in 2010 as a spin-off from the University of Oxford, has announced an equity investment of £8.7 million (around US $10.6 million), provided by a combination of new and existing shareholders as the first portion of a Series C funding round. Further investment is expected before the end of 2016.

The funding will be used to help extend Oxford PV's position in the use of its perovskite technology to significantly enhance the performance and economic returns achievable from existing solar PV technologies. A portion of the funding has already been earmarked to develop a demonstration line to showcase the technology to manufacturers, bringing the firm one step closer to commercialization.

Dyesol recently secured a £800,000 ($1.05 million) grant by the U.K.'s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for the continued research in the optimization of charge carrier mobility in nanoporous metal oxide films and will enable the Australian organic cell developer to better understand the impact of halide modified titania on Perovskite cell performance.

The EPSRC is the U.K.'s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences, and this grant will be delivered specifically to Dyesol UK, Cristal and the University of York. The grant monies will, Dyesol said, help support better understanding of the chemistry of the improved electron capture and transport technique.

The University at Buffalo and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) won a $225,000 grant from the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative to investigate chalcogenide perovskites.

The funds will go towards helping the team develop techniques for fabricating thin film solar devices made from such perovskite materials. The researchers plan to optimize the electronic and optical properties of the materials through defect engineering.

A team coordinated by the Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM) will work on a €5 million, three-year project to produce solar cells based on perovskite at a size of at least 15x15 cm, while maintaining a conversion efficiency of at least 14%.

In addition to this up-scaling, the research team will develop high-performance cells. Such tandem cells can harvest a broader spectrum of light than a single cell, which should lead to an increase in their efficiency further, approaching the 30% range. The team states that, in the longer term, existing manufacturing methods used to make silicon cells may require only minor modification before being used to produce tandem cells, as the perovskite layer would simply be added on top of the conventional cell to act as an 'efficiency booster'.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will be providing about $650,000 to CSIRO for the development of guidelines for assessing the performance of the perovskite solar cells. This project will be carried out as part of an attempt to reduce the cost of renewable energy in the country by providing a funding boost to an innovative solar cell technology.

CSIRO is planning to establish new methods and guidelines applicable to perovskite solar cells, as international standards to measure solar PV cell performance are only applicable for silicon wafer cells. The new guidelines would be applied at the ARENA-supported PV Performance Laboratory in Newcastle, and the lab would help Australian researchers test perovskite samples in the country instead of conducting tests overseas, which will boost research and reduce the costs of the project.

Dyesol, the Australia-based Perovskite Solar Cell (PSC) technology developer, aims to raise up to AUD 10 million (USD 7.25 million/EUR 6.8 million) by selling shares to shareholders and investors.

A share purchase plan (SPP) opened on November 19, allowing existing shareholders from Australia or New Zealand to subscribe to new shares priced at AUD 0.26 a piece. The SPP targets AUD 6 million in proceeds, to support Dyesol's Technology Development and Business Activity plans and working capital. The SPP is expected to close on December 4.

A project by Cambridge-based DZP Technologies, which also received the prestigious 1851 Industrial Fellowship, targets the development and commercialization of innovative perovskite solar cells. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute, aiming to overcome some of the necessary technical hurdles to realize perovskite solar cells.

Australia-based Dyesol has been awarded a $449,000 grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to commercialize an innovative, very high efficiency perovskite solar cell.

ARENA has stated that the funding would enable Dyesol to create a roadmap setting out the steps needed to take its perovskite solar cell technology from the lab to a commercially available product. Dyesol will map out the techniques and requirements for working towards scalable manufacturing of high-quality, uniform perovskite cells that achieve efficiency, durability and stability targets.

The UK-based Oxford PV has raised £4.4 million (US $6.6 million) in a "top-up" Round B to continue its work in commercialization of perovskite technology. The company has now raised a total of £8.2 million in its B round.

A team led by Brown University researchers has been awarded $4 million by the National Science Foundation to study perovskite solar cells. The research will be performed in partnership with the University of Nebraska'Lincoln (UNL) and Rhode Island College (RIC).

The research will aim at better understanding the basic science behind these solar cells, looking for ways to develop new technologies based on that understanding, and investigating scalable production methods that could one day bring perovskite solar cells to market. Another issue the researchers will look to address is the fact that the best performing perovskite solar cells contain lead. The team will look for lead-free perovskite compositions that work equally well.