Australian low cost solar innovator 5B lands major funding deal with oil giant BP

Global oil and gas giant bp has invested $20 million in Australian solar innovator 5B, joining a growing number of big name investors in the the company specialising in low-cost, rapid deployment of solar arrays.

The new funding commitment from bp ventures complete a $55 million series B funding round that was initially led by existing investors, the  global tech giant AES Corporation and Artesian Capital. 5Bs other existing investors include former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Simon Holmes a Court.

5B says the latest fund raising will allow it expand globally – including a manufacturing hub in the US – and invest in R&D to lower deployment costs further and make the technology even quicker to deploy.

It has rolled out more than 60MW of its solar technology, but the biggest prize could be a role in the massive 20GW Sun Cable solar farm – backed by Australian billionaires Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes – where it has been named the preferred supplier.

The bp funding will also open up big opportunities with Lightsource bp, which is jointly owned by bp and has emerged as one of the biggest solar project developers in Australia, and the world, with a goal of deploying 25GW of utility scale solar by 2025.

“5B’s innovative solar technology can deliver low-cost power generation at speed, helping to meet rising electricity demand,” said Johnathan Stone, principal at bp ventures, who will join the 5B board of directors.

“This deal is a fantastic example of bp investing in a business that will support our renewable energy transition growth engine. And … it will support the decarbonisation of energy in Australia.”

Chris McGrath, the 5B CEO and co-founder, says working with bp ventures and the broader bp group offers  a wealth of global expertise and opportunities to deploy the 5B Maverick product in a range of different markets.

“The backing of such an active and experienced venture capital team is a powerful validation of our technology and ability to support bp as it transitions to an integrated energy company.”

The Maverick system consists of up to 90 solar panels mounted on specially designed frames that can be unfolded and installed at speed. 5B says has deployed its technology across more than 100 sites worldwide with total generating capacity of over 60MW.

In May this year 5B claimed a world record when the Maverick system was used to deploy panels with 1.1MW capacity – covering the equivalent of a soccer pitch – in a single day, with a team of only 10 at AES’ Andes Solar II B facility in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

McGrath says the company intends to roll out in 2023 a “next gen” systems that will enable it to beat that deployment speed record set in Chile, and help further lower costs, including through automation.

And it hopes to announce its firs “utility scale” solar project – possibly of around 100MW.

At the time of the first tranche of its funding round, 5B announced a major cut-back in staffing levels, but McGrath says the situation is improving, although the company remains cautious given its size and the major events flowing through global markets.

“We have been growing since then, but a little more slowly and surely than before,” McGrath told RenewEconomy. “This new tranche gives us a lot more confidence going forward.”

McGrath says the solar industry remains a “mixed and fluid market”, affected by policy uncertainty and a jump in module and other costs over the last 12 months.

He notes that in Australia, very few new solar projects have been started in the last 12 months, it’s a mixed and fluid market, although many miners – one of the company’s core markets given the modular and speedy deployment – are looking to reduce diesel costs.

The US market, he says, has huge underlying demand – underpinning by the new policy program of the Biden administration, but also affected by tariffs on imported panels.