Combining technologies and companies, a newly formed entity is looking to become a leader in the solar industry. And it has the backing of Bill Gates’ firm.
Dallas’ Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT), a solar cell tech developer that’s part of Hunt Consolidated, has merged with 1366 Technologies, a maker of solar wafers based in Bedford, Mass. To bring the two companies’ technologies into a single tandem module, the combined entity, called CubicPV, received $25 million in funding from Hunt Consolidated’s Dallas-based, energy-focused investment arm.
Joining the funding were First Solar, an Arizona-based maker of solar panels, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a sustainable energy-focused fund founded by Gates in 2015. As part of the deal, Hunt Energy Ventures will get a seat at CubicPV’s board.
“Our singular Direct Wafer process is the crucial advantage in making tandem modules a reality and with the HPT merger, we have the blueprint for achieving economically viable, tandem solutions for terawatt-scale,” said Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 Technologies that will take the reins at the combined company, in a statement. “Since their founding, both companies have championed the importance of low-cost manufacturing innovations to achieving the world's energy transition goals.”
The merger brings together two types of solar technology. Like its name states, HPT has been focused on developing safe and scalable perovskite technology, which has a crystal structure that allows it to harvest light. For its part, 1366 has been focused on developing innovative silicon wafers, which harvest energy from the infrared spectrum of light. CubicPV says that by combining the two technologies in a tandem module, it can boost solar panel power input by around 30 percent.
CubicPV will operate out of offices in Dallas and Bedford, Mass.
HPT was founded in 2013 and led by CEO Scott Burton. In April, it was one of 22 organizations to be selected and funded by the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite Funding Program. It secured $2.5 million to fund work it was doing with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. It also served as co-principal investigator on two other DoE-funded projects. One with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, which received $1.5 million. And another with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, that got $1.25 million.
1366 was launched in 2008 and has pulled in more than $140 million in that time, most recently with an $18 million Series E round lead by Breakthrough in 2019. It has been producing its cell and modules at a facility in Malaysia, in partnership with Korean firm Hanwha Q CELLS. According to the publication PV Tech, 1366 announced plans earlier this month to invest $300 million to set up a wafer and cell manufacturing site in India.
“This agreement will unite two of the solar industry's most disruptive technologies to dramatically boost the energy harvest and drive down costs of solar installations, helping to meet the world's electrification and climate goals,” said Michael Irwin, CTO of HPT and CubicPV, in a statement.
