Financial - Page 10

BlueDot Photonics has announced that Hamamatsu Ventures USA, the North American venture group of Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. of Japan, joined its Series Seed financing. This closes its $1 Million Series Seed financing and will allow BlueDot Photonics to move faster towards its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through faster deployment of solar power.

BlueDot's technology aims to lower the cost of solar power by up to 10% by improving energy yield in silicon solar panels by up to 16%. Long-term, BlueDot is committed to pushing solar panel efficiency and costs beyond the limits of current silicon technology. The lead investor for BlueDot's Series Seed financing was VoLo Earth Ventures. Other investors include Clean Energy Venture Group (CEVG) of Boston, MA, E8 of Seattle, WA, and VertueLab of Portland, OR.

Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of flexible thin-film photovoltaic solutions, has announced the signing of a Joint Development Agreement with German agrivoltaic thin-film solar tube maker, TubeSolar, to pursue the Agricultural-photovoltaics/Agrivoltaics (APV) market.

It was indicated that this JDA is a multi-million-dollar, long-term supply agreement, forming a strategic partnership between Ascent Solar and TubeSolar. This JDA includes (i) long-term supplier of customized PV ('PV Foils') for TubeSolar, (ii) Non-Recurring Engineering Fee ('NRE Fee') of up to $4 Million, payable by TubeSolar to Ascent Solar in three parts, (iii) establishment of a joint venture entity to develop a new manufacturing facility located in Germany ('JV FAB'), (iv) the Company will benefit from milestone payments by TubeSolar of up to $13.5 Million, and (v) joint development efforts in next generation, high efficiency CIGS-Perovskite tandem PV cells.

Hanwha Q Cells, a large South-Korean manufacturer of photovoltaic solar cells, has earmarked 1.5 trillion won (around USD$1.28 billion) for investment in production line conversion and research into new solar energy technologies such as tandem perovskite-silicon cells (individual or connected in series).

The investment will be used to boost the production capacity of solar cells and modules to 7.6 gigawatts per year by 2025. "With this investment, we will strengthen our leading industry position while securing competitiveness in the domestic solar industry," said Hanwha Q Cells CEO Lee Koo-yung.

Update: according to our latest information, this investment did not go through

Japan-based Green Science Alliance, which develops next-generation technologies for use in energy as well as in other fields, has invested in a Kyoto University start-up focused on perovskite solar cell research ' EneCoat Technologies.

EneCoat is working on more efficient and durable perovskite cells while also looking to develop lead-free perovskite cells.

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.

Renewables investor Magnora AG recently announced that it will increase its investment in perovskite solar developer Evolar, taking a 40.7% stake in the company.

Mats Ljunggren, Evolar's chief executive, said the company's next-generation solar cells have 'Much higher efficiency for about the same per-watt manufacturing cost' as traditional technologies.

BlueDot Photonics, developer of solutions to improve solar panel performance, has announced that it raised $1 million in its Series Seed financing. The round was led by VoLo Earth Ventures, an early-stage VC investing in the new energy economy through innovative products and technologies.

BlueDot Photonics brought over $1.5M in non-dilutive grants and projects to the table to help the company towards its goal of creating gigaton reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through faster deployment of solar power. BlueDot's quantum-cutting technology can lower the cost of solar power by up to 10% by improving energy yield in solar panels by up to 16%. Long-term, BlueDot is committed to pushing solar panel efficiency and costs beyond the limits of current silicon technology. Other investors include Clean Energy Venture Group (CEVG) of Boston, MA, who helped with investment syndication, and E8 of Seattle, WA.

Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT) recently revealed that it has been selected for an award of $2.5 million in financing from the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite Funding Program.

In addition, HPT is also co-Principle Investigator and collaborative partner in two other DOE perovskite funding award selections, including a $1.5 million award to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and a $1.25 million award to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) recently announced an ambitious new target to cut the cost of solar energy by 60% within the next ten years, in addition to nearly $128 million in funding to lower costs, improve performance, and speed the deployment of solar energy technologies.

To that end, the DoE has allocated funding through its Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), to support advancing two materials used to make solar cells: perovskites and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office is funding the "American-Made Challenges: Perovskite Startup Prize" - a two-stage, $3 million prize competition designed to accelerate the development and manufacturing of perovskite solar cells by moving world-class research out of the lab and into new U.S. companies.

Competitors who advance from the first stage to the second will receive a $200,000 cash prize. The winners of the second stage will receive $500,000 in cash'a combined total of $700,000'plus $100,000 in technical support vouchers for launching a viable solar manufacturing company with the potential to introduce marketable perovskite products in the United States.