A British manufacturer of concentrated solar photovoltaic technology has secured almost £3 million in fresh funding that will allow it to ramp up production.
Whitfield Solar, a spin-out company from Reading University, said it had completed a £2.7 million funding round co-led by The Carbon Trust and an undisclosed syndicate of investors.
Dr Clive Weatherby, chief technology officer at Whitfield, said the money would help the company establish small-scale production of its concentrated solar platform at a site in Italy. He said although investment in renewables had suffered in the immediate wake of the financial crisis, things had improved.
“Confidence seems to have been regained and I think, frankly, that investment in renewables is one of the more secure areas. There’s uncertainty about which technology to pick but an appetite to invest in the area generally. People take time on due diligence but there’s money out there.”
Production will initially work at a scale of 1MW in the first year, ramping up to 10MW later. More engineers will be recruited when Whitfield gets its next round of funding for an “escalation” in manufacturing capacity, anticipated within a year. Weatherby said photovoltaics were falling in price, expanding the market for technologies such as Whitfield’s. “It makes it more competitive but the market is growing.”
The company’s photovoltaic concentrator products take the sun’s energy and concentrate it via an array of fresnel lenses on to a small surface area of high-performance photovoltaic materials. The technology is designed for both large-scale ground-based “solar farms” and smaller rooftop installations. Whitfield Solar said it was generating “substantial interest” from customers worldwide.
© PE Publishing, 3 December 2009
