Financial - Page 4

TandemPV has raised $6 million, bringing its total to $27 million in venture capital and government support. The Company will use the funds to advance research and development and plans to build its first manufacturing facility.

The funding round was led by existing investor Planetary Technologies, an early-stage venture capital firm with deep expertise in climate tech. Other institutional investors participated, including new investor Uncorrelated Ventures, as well as executives from a variety of corporate sectors and such solar industry leaders as Tom Werner, former chairman, president and CEO of SunPower Corp.

Chinese energy company Akcome has announced an investment of approximately 1 billion RMB (~USD 140 million) to establish a research and production base for heterojunction-perovskite tandem solar cells.

The initiative will be led by Akcome’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Zhejiang Akcome Future Technology Co., Ltd., in collaboration with the Hangzhou Qianjiang Economic Development Zone Management Committee.

According to recent reports, China-based Xi'an Tianjiao New Energy has obtained nearly 100 million yuan (over USD$14,100,00) in angel round financing, led by Winreal Investment. The funds will primarily be used for building a perovskite pilot production line with a capacity of 10MW alongside other operational expenses covering consumables and staff.

Tianjiao, a perovskite solar cell developer, specializes in manufacturing single-cell perovskite modules including both flexible and rigid types. The rigid modules find their use primarily in PVBI, whereas the flexible ones are mounted on car roofs or used in 5G base stations.

French PV module manufacturer Voltec Solar has secured €9.3 million ($10.1 million) from Ademe, France’s environmental agency. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the production of perovskite-silicon tandem solar panels.

The French manufacturer currently operates two 250 MW production lines at its factory in Dinsheim-sur-Bruche, France.

France-based Armor Group has acquired a 20% stake in French solar module maker HoloSolis. 

In 2025, HoloSolis plans to open a TOPCon PV cell and panel factory in France. At full capacity from 2027, the factory is expected to employ 1,700 people and produce 10 million modules per year, for a total capacity of 5 GW per year. HoloSolis is also working on the next generation of solar panels and the perovskite-silicon tandem cells.

Huasun Energy, China-based developer of HJT solar products, has raised more than RMB2 billion (over USD$275,600,000) in its Series C funding. The lead investor is China Green Development Investment Group (China Green Development), with co-investments from Bank of China Asset Management Co., Ltd. (Bank of China Asset) and China Post Insurance Company Limited (China Post Insurance). Originvest and China Xinxing Asset Management Co., Ltd. (China Xinxing Asset) also increased their investment in this round. 

The funding will be used to further expand the production of Huasun's high-efficiency heterojunction (HJT) products and to support the R&D of cutting-edge technologies, including heterojunction-perovskite tandem solar cells.

A new project, led by the University of Michigan, could enable industrial competitors to collectively build a predictive model that speeds the development of perovskite solar cells. The aim is to improve upon the process of layer-by-layer deposition of semiconductor materials during production with an information-sharing approach that boosts cooperation between companies while protecting proprietary information and worker interests.

The project is backed by a four-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation and includes partners at the University of California San Diego.

Cosmos Innovation, a company that relies on its AI platform called Mobius for "revolutionizing the approach to solar and semiconductor process development", has announced raising $19.7 million in total funding. The funding will support the company's different approach to developing perovskite silicon tandem solar cell technology.

The funding coincides with Cosmos Innovation's unveiling of Mobius, its pioneering AI recipe optimization platform. Mobius has reportedly been demonstrated across various sectors, including solar, silicon carbide, advanced data center chips and advanced packaging. This platform fuels Cosmos Innovation's ambitious endeavor: construction of the world's first self-learning fab in the solar and semiconductor space.

Researchers at Queen Mary University, led by Dr, Lei Su, Reader in Photonics at the School of Engineering and Material Science, have been awarded a £1m EPSRC Adventurous Manufacturing Grant that supports high-risk and adventurous ideas. 

In this project, the team will develop scalable manufacturing technologies for single-crystal perovskite optical and electronic devices. This project is a follow-on from the EPSRC Adventurous Manufacturing feasibility study, in which Dr. Su invented a fabrication process to grow single-crystal perovskite devices beyond the current aspect-ratio limit. 

Graphitic materials supplier First Graphene has announced an R&D collaboration with Greatcell Energy, trading as Halocell Energy, and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to commercialize perovskite solar cell fabrication. The project has received a Cooperative Research Centers Project (CRC-P) grant worth over AUD$2 million (around $USD1,300,000).

The research and development project is intended to commercialize ultra-low-cost, flexible perovskite solar cell fabrication using Halocell’s roll-to-roll production process at the company’s Wagga Wagga plant, First Graphene said in an announcement. Through the project, First Graphene plans to develop cost-effective graphene-based electrode replacements for high-cost conductor materials, such as gold and silver, used in cell manufacturing.