RayGen raises $51m in round led by US oil giant and state-owned VC fund

US offshore oil drilling giant SLB has tipped a further $A30.8 million ($US20 million) into Australian solar and thermal storage hopeful, Raygen, in a fundraising round that has also snared $A20 million from Breakthrough Victoria, the state-owned venture capital fund led by former premier John Brumby.

RayGen said on Monday that the funds gathered through its Series-D Capital Raise will go towards expanding manufacturing, securing the supply chain and increasing automation for rapid delivery of its integrated solar electricity and heat technology.

RayGen’s technology uses tracking mirrors to focus sunlight on to a central receiver of PV modules, but these are almost 2,000 times more powerful than traditional solar panels, and operate with almost 1,000 times solar concentration, and using cells with almost two times efficiency.

One third of the sunlight that hits the modules is converted into electricity, and two-thirds into heat (hot water at 95°C). The storage solution uses two water pits – each to a depth of fifteen to twenty metres and the size of a farm dam – to store energy thermally as hot and cold water.

The company’s flagship project in Carwarp, Victoria, is billed as the “world’s largest operating next-generation thermal hydro long-duration energy storage project,” capable of delivering 17 hours of continuous power to the electricity grid in north-west Victoria.

The company is now backed by major players including AGL, which is looking to roll out the technology for its shuttered Liddell coal plant.

Other significant shareholders include Norway’s Equinor and US oil giants Chevron and Schlumberger, now known as SLB, which jumped in on RayGen’s Series C Capital Raise.

EU-based renewables developer Photon Energy, another shareholder, is also advancing plans to use the technology for a 200MW commercial scale project in South Australia – as revealed by RenewEconomy last August – and RayGen claims a growing pipeline of 1.2GW of projects.

RayGen last year won $10 million in Arena funding to help push its technology down the cost curve and lay the groundwork for the South Australia project, which could combine 200MW of solar with 115 MW and 1.2 GWh of thermal storage. Arena has also contributed $15 million to the Carwarp project.

Alongside the latest capital raise, RayGen says it has also signed a Strategic Deployment Agreement (SDA) with SLB to accelerate its path to market, including beyond Australia. To this end, SLB will provide international sales and engineering support.

“RayGen is thrilled by SLB’s extensive and deep support of our vision to accelerate the energy transition with our innovative solar and storage technology,” said CEO Richard Payne on Monday.

“As a world-leader in technology innovation and engineering, SLB will play an integral role in accelerating RayGen’s global impact …as we continue to scale the business in preparation for RayGen’s expansion and deployment to global markets”.

In a separate statement, Breakthrough Victoria said its investment in RayGen aimed to support “home grown innovation” and help the technology expand into more markets.

“The investment is another example of BV helping to commercialise Victorian IP, enabling Raygen to continue growing and expanding while remaining in their home state,” the statement said.

The fund points out that RayGen manufactures its proprietary solar modules in Victoria, with a new 170MW year facility underway in Hawthorn East – a venture also supported by ARENA.

“We are investing in RayGen Resources because they focus on what Victoria needs – sustainability, scale and local manufacturing,” said Breakthrough Victoria CEO, Grant Dooley, on Monday.

“Their innovative energy storage technology will help us better transition to renewable energy.”