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.

UNSW Sydney has received more than AUD$6 million (around USD$3,850,000) in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Awards (DECRA) round for 2024. Among the recipients are two perovskite-oriented projects.

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is supporting 200 new early career research projects with more than $86 million in funding for this 2024 round. Fourteen of the 200 projects have been awarded to early career researchers at UNSW.

Power Roll, a developer of lightweight flexible solar films, recently announced a £1 million funding round led by Maven Capital Partners. Power Roll has been doing work on perovskites combined with its patented low-cost and high-resolution conductive surfaces Microgrooves technology.

The transaction comprised two investments from Maven-managed regional funds including a £750,000 investment from the North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and a £250,000 investment from the Finance Durham Fund, established by Durham County Council and overseen by Business Durham.

Caelux has concluded a Series A3 funding round, securing $12 million. The funding was spearheaded by Temasek, a prominent global investment company, and attracted participation from entities such as Reliance New Energy (which owns a 20% stake in Caelux), Khosla Ventures, Mitsui Fudosan, and Fine Structure Ventures.

This new funding round contributes to a total of $24 million raised for the Series A stage. The influx of capital will be primarily channeled towards supporting Caelux’s factory expansion, intensive research and development efforts, and the forthcoming product launch. 

The European Commission recently approved, under EU State aid rules, a €89.5 million (over USD$99 million) Italian measure made available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (‘RRF') to support the expansion of 3Sun's solar panel plant in Catania, Sicily. 

The aid will take the form of a €89.5 million direct grant to support 3Sun's investment for the expansion of its solar panels factory in Catania, Sicily. 3Sun is part of the Enel Group. The project will expand the annual capacity of 3Sun's existing plant from 200 MW to more than 3 GW. It will also introduce tandem perovskite PV technology, which will improve the panel efficiency and therefore increase the energy generated by each MW installed. The factory will be the largest solar panels manufacturing site in Europe, which will ultimately reduce the EU dependency on imports from foreign manufacturers. 

The SolarNL initiative, designed to strengthen solar manufacturing in the Netherlands, has been awarded a subsidy by the Dutch government’s National Growth Fund. The project will receive EUR 312 million (USD 340m) from the government, of which EUR 135 million awarded immediately and EUR 177 million conditionally, as well as a EUR-100-million loan.

The SolarNL program groups nine Dutch solar technology companies - Solarge, MCPV, HyET Solar, Compoform, Exasun, Energyra, Lightyear Layer, IM Efficiency and Taylor - and research organizations, targeting the development and large-scale production of circular integrated solar cells and panels in the Netherlands.

It will seek to develop and industrialize three innovative photovoltaic (PV) technologies: high-efficiency silicon heterojunction cells (HJT), flexible perovskite films, and PV products for integration into buildings and automotive applications.

MCPV said (on Linkedin) that the support includes its first GW-scale HJT cell manufacturing facility in Europe.

The overall budget of the program is EUR 898 million, of which EUR 586 million is private financing.