Greatcell Solar has announced that it has finalized and signed a funding agreement with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for a 6 million AUD (around $4.5 million USD) grant under the Advancing Renewables Program (ARP). The grant will assist in developing a world-class prototype facility in Australia for the fabrication of high quality, large area, current generation and next generation perovskite devices, an essential prerequisite to large scale manufacture.

The grant will assist Greatcell to accelerate its scale-up and prototyping activities that are critical to its commercialization objectives, and is said to clearly demonstrate the importance of ARENA in supporting the development of renewable energy technology in Australia.

Australia-based GreatCell Solar, formerly known as Dyesol, was founded to develop, scale-up and commercialize 3rd generation solar PV technologies, and currently the company focuses on perovskite solar cell (PSC) materials and technologies.

GreatCell's Managing Director, Richard Caldwell kindly agreed to talk with Perovskite-Info about the Company's current technology and future plans - and his views on the perovskite market.

In July 2017, Greatcell Solar (formerly Dyesol) announced a plan to raise $5 million AUD (almost $4 million USD) in a share purchase plan. Now, Greatcell announced that it has executed a subscription agreement for a strategic investment of $4 million from an Australian food, water and energy fund. The fund has strongly indicated its interest to maintain its percentage shareholding and, where possible, increase it over time as Greatcell transitions from R&D to global mass manufacture.

The funds will be used to expedite plans to develop Greatcell's prototype facility at CSIRO at Clayton, Victoria and to immediately commence procurement of long lead-time capital equipment required for the prototype facility. These activities are critical and will allow Greatcell to advance technology development and move forward with its Commercialization Schedule relating to glass substrate Perovskite Solar Cells.

Solliance has achieved a new world record for Perovskite Solar Cell technology demonstrated on industrially applicable Roll-to-Roll (R2R) processes of 13.5% conversion efficiency at cell level. The group stressed that the records were achieved in a factory setting, using an industrially scalable process.

Solliance has achieved the conversion efficiency of 13.5% and module-level aperture area conversion efficiency of 12.2% for perovskite-based photovoltaics using industrially-applicable, roll-to-roll production processes. By further optimizing and re-validating processes that were earlier developed buy Solliance, the performance at both the cell and module level have been improved.

GreatCell Solar, developer of solar technologies, was awarded 700,000 euro (about $825 million USD) in a European Union Horizon 2020 project known as Apolo. The grant to Greatcell's application has occurred through its 100% Italian subsidiary, Greatcell Solar Italy located in Rome, that aims to commercialize perovskite solar technology.

Much of the work involved will investigate advanced technology for higher efficiencies, longer life, and improved encapsulation of PSC-enabled flexible substrates, such as metals and polymers. These are all critical in the successful translation of the 3rd generation PSC photovoltaic (PV) technology from the laboratory to the factory and satisfying PV industry accreditation (IEC 61215).

GreatCell Solar, the Australia-based materials company formerly called Dyesol, has been awarded a AUS$6m (around $4.75 million USD) grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for the Perovskite Solar Cell Technology - Large Area Module Development Project.

The company has also set out to raise around $5 million AUS ($4 million USD) as part of the project funding. This should enable Greatcell to accelerate the scale-up and prototyping activities to commercialize the company's technology.

GreatCell Solar (formerly Dyesol), has announced a $5 million AUD (almost $4 million USD) share purchase plan to raise funds to continue work on technology scale-up, testing and accreditation, equipment procurement and facilities fit-out, as well as for general working capital purposes.

Greatcell is offering eligible shareholders the opportunity to purchase fully paid ordinary shares (New Shares) at an issue price of $0.18 per New Share, which is a discount of approximately 13.5% to the volume weighted average price of Greatcell's shares on the ASX during the 5 trading days immediately prior to today. All New Shares will be quoted on ASX and will rank equally with other fully paid ordinary shares on issue.

The Australia-based Greatcell (formerly known as Dyesol), has signed a non-exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with JinkoSolar, according to which the Chinese headquartered solar PV manufacturer will be given access to the company's developmental perovskite solar cells (PSC), with a long term goal to establish a formal agreement to commercialize the technology and commence large scale manufacturing.

Greatcell said that the relationship had formed over months of discussion and with the close support of Nanyang Technology University (NTU), its academic research collaboration partner in Singapore.

Dyesol, the Australian company developing Perovskite Solar Cell (PSC) technology, has decided to change its name and logo to Greatcell Solar.

The decision has been reached at a general meeting of shareholders on June 9, and it expects the new name to be registered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission around June 21, while the name and ticker change on the stock exchange should follow shortly thereafter.

Dyesol has announced that it has been awarded a grant of 2.5 miilion AUD (almost $2 million USD) under the Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P) programme. The grant, administered by the Australian Department of Industry, is for an 18 month project titled, "Large Area Perovskite Photovoltaic Material Coating on Glass Substrate" and complements Dyesol's Major Area Demonstration (MAD) prototype development activities.

Dyesol will lead the project and other partners are CSR Building Products, and its subsidiary, CSR Viridian, and CSIRO. This activity aims to advance the goal of commercializing Perovskite Solar Cell (PSC) photovoltaic technology on glass substrates.