Financial - Page 8

French solar module manufacturer Voltec Solar and the Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France (IPVF) have announced plans to set up a factory for four-terminal (4T) tandem perovskite-silicon solar panels in France. The “France PV Industrie” project aims to build a gigafactory for solar panels, with a dual objective: to produce more efficient solar panels locally and to create a sustainable industry, based on a fast-growing market and a breakthrough technology.

The IPVF and Voltec plan to create a joint venture (France PV Industrie) so they can secure the necessary financing to scale up to industrial production. The pilot line will require an investment of €15 million ($15.4 million) and the industrial demonstrator €50 million. The partners estimate the total investment at around €1 billion by 2030. The facility will make modules based on IPVF's 4T tandem solar cell technology. The two entities plan to set up the first pilot production line by the end of 2023 and the first 200 MW industrial demonstrator in 2025. They will then increase the factory's capacity to 1 GW in 2027 and 5 GW by 2030.

Reliance New Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has signed agreements to invest in the US-based perovskite-based solar technology company Caelux Corporation which is in the research and development stage of its perovskite-based solar technology. 

The Reliance company will invest USD$12 million to acquire a 20 percent stake in the US-based company. 

Scientists from Switzerland's EPFL and the Toyota Motor Corporation have prepared a detailed analysis of the projected costs of designing and operating a 100 MW perovskite solar cell production line in various locations, taking under consideration factors like labor and energy costs as well as all materials and processing. The team found that perovskite PV could be cost-competitive with other technologies even at much smaller scale, but noted that this still depends on the tech proving its long-term stability, and impressive achievements in research being successfully transferred to commercial production.

While perovskite materials have been repeatedly demonstrating their potential for low-cost, high-efficiency solar energy with lower energy fabrication compared to silicon PV technology, there are still many different possibilities regarding the form these commercial products could take, and the materials they could contain - with more than one option that could prove commercially viable.

Great Wall Holdings (GWH) has entered a contract to build the headquarters and a perovskite base for its spin-off company UtmoLight in Wuxi, China. 

The company signed an agreement with local authorities of Wuxi’s Xishan Economic & Technological Development Zone to invest 3 billion yuan (around USD$442.2 million) in the UtmoLight project. The new headquarters and perovskite innovation industrial base will reportedly house 'the world’s first GW-grade perovskite photovoltaic module and BIPV production line'. The production line of perovskite quantum dot will feature a production capacity of 100 tonnes per year. GWH expects to see an annual production value of 2.5 billion yuan ($368.5 million) after the base is up and running.

German photovoltaic (PV) thin-film developer TubeSolar recently raised EUR 4.68 million (around USD$4.8 million).TubeSolar said previously that it intends to use the proceeds to support its growth and for investments in the development of the highly-automated production of its PV modules.

In July 2022, the company reported an efficiency record of 14% on solar films in the industrially suitable "roll-to-roll" process as part of its perovskite research activities.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) selected University of Arizona chemical and environmental engineering associate professor Erin Ratcliff for a $300,000 grant to advance the near-term scalability of perovskites.

“Perovskites are the highest-performing printable solar cell technology,” Ratcliff said. “But the operating hypothesis in the field is that defects are contributing to instability”. With the SETO grant, Ratcliff and her team will develop a method for detecting these defects during manufacturing. The low-cost, scalable method will help scientists understand the way different parts and materials of the manufacturing process may contribute to defects and instability, and, in turn, how to mitigate these effects. The grant is part of SETO’s Small Innovative Projects in Solar 2022 Funding Program, which funds targeted, early-stage ideas in solar energy research that can produce significant results within the first year of performance. Nineteen projects received a total of $5 million in funding.

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has announced new initiatives and $56 million in funding to promote innovation in solar manufacturing and recycling. The funding will aim to help make clean energy more affordable and reliable, create jobs and enhance U.S. economic growth and competitiveness. Developing more solar power, the cheapest form of new electricity supply, is key to achieving President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.

The new programs that were announced are designed to drive innovation in solar technology and manufacturing, supporting opportunities for the U.S. to expand production of thin-film modules, which do not rely on foreign-dominated supply chains, as well as supporting newer technologies like perovskite solar cells.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has selected 19 projects for which to grant a total funding of $6 million, to pursue innovative, targeted, early-stage ideas in solar energy research and development. The projects were selected through the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) 2022 Funding Program.

Projects were awarded in two solar energy research areas: PV and concentrating solar-thermal power (see CSP winners here). PV projects will improve power conversion efficiency, energy output, reuse and recycling processes, service lifetime, and manufacturability of PV technologies. Of the 19 selected project, 3 were perovskite-related.

EneCoat Technologies has secured an investment from Global Brain, through its JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund.

EneCoat recently received additional investments from SPARX Group's Mirai Creation Fund III and Mitsubishi Materials and NGK Insulators.

Tandem PV, a California-based photovoltaic technology company specializing in ultra-high-efficiency tandem metal-halide perovskite solar panels, has announced closing the initial $6 million of its $12 million Series A financing round. Tandem PV will use the funds to build a pilot manufacturing facility in San Jose, California.

The round was led by Bioeconomy Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, through its new Planetary Technologies fund, with participation from an international solar manufacturer and a U.S. utility company.