GCL Perovskite, the perovskite solar cells production unit under privately-owned Chinese power firm GCL Holdings, has secured 500 million yuan ($69 million) in a Series C1 round led by Goldstone Investment, the private fund management subsidiary of CITIC Securities.
The round saw the participation of state-owned Kunshan Hi-Tech Group as well as local venture capital firms HongShan (previously Sequoia Capital China) and Hanyang Capital, according to a release on Monday.
The proceeds will help finance the firm in building what it claims to be the world’s largest gigawatt (GW)-class perovskite solar cell factory. The factory is expected to commence production of the world’s first tandem perovskite solar module with a sunlight-to-electricity conversion rate of over 27% and a 2050 sq cm in size, per the release.
Tandem photovoltaic modules offer a higher energy efficiency compared to its single-junction counterparts, as it adopts multiple types of solar cells that enables it to convert more energy from sunlight to electricity per unit area.
Founded in 2010, the Kunshan-headquartered firm counts a number of blue-chip investors among its shareholders, including IDG Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group, Glory Ventures, and Temasek Holdings.
Perovskite solar cells, invented by Riki Miyasaka, a professor at the Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Toin University of Yokohama in Japan in 2009, emerges as the next-generation solar cell technology as it is easier to manufacture, more lightweight, and flexible compared to crystalline silicon solar cells.
A number of major Chinese solar cells makers have since tapped into the mass production of perovskite solar cells, including Microquanta Semiconductor and DaZheng (Jiangsu) Micro Nano Technology.
Chinese startups began mass production at the 100 megawatt (MW) (thousand kW) scale in 2023, and there are efforts to establish GW-scale (million kW) production systems for large-area cells by the end of 2024, according to a report published by Mitsui & Co Global Strategic Studies Institute.
