US based transparent solar windows creator NEXT Energy Technologies has raised $3 million funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to further develop its proprietary transparent PV coating for windows to start generating power and bring it to commercialization.
NEXT has secured this commitment from the CEC under its Realizing Accelerated Manufacturing and Production for Clean Energy Technologies (RAMP) grant through which it grants financial assistance to startups achieve initial manufacturing readiness levels.
With this grant, NEXT will fund the scale up of its low-rate initial production (LRIP) line for the assembly of solution processed organic PV (OPV) on architectural window glass into window-PV modules. These then need to be ready for integration into commercial insulated glass units (IGU).
Company claims its carbon-based materials used for the coating are cheap, abundant and can be easily recycled. It uses a pre-coated fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO glass) as bottom electrode and deploys its own transparent electrode on the top. The functional layers used are solution-coated barring the initial pre-coated transparent contact.
"The funding provided is vital to startups like ours that are focusing on manufacturing at the next level," said CEO and Co-Founder of NEXT, Daniel Emmett. "Our goal is to help commercial buildings achieve net-zero energy and reduce their carbon footprint, and we are working with innovative partners to demonstrate how this technology can grow in the future."
In 2021, NEXT raised $13.4 million series C funding round with Southeast Asian coal miner Golden Energy and Resources among the investors (see $13.4 Million Raised By PV Windows Tech Company).
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