Melbourne-based “solar hydro” tech company RayGen Resources has received a new investment boost from equity partner Photon Energy, as it works towards plans for a huge 100MW/1,000MWh solar plus storage project.
Amsterdam-based solar project developer Photon, which last year took a minor equity stake in RayGen, on Thursday announced that made an equity investment of $3 million in RayGen maintaining a roughly 9% stake in the technology company.
Photon said he investment was made as part of a recent capital raise for RayGen, which it participated in alongside a group of as-yet undisclosed investors.
Melbourne-based RayGen has been chipping away at the Australian renewables market for some years now and in March 2020 secured ARENA funding to pilot its “solar hydro” storage technology, which captures sunlight with mirrors and stores energy in water.
The flagship project, near Carwarp in north western Victoriain, is being developed in partnership with AGL Energy and will deliver 4MW of solar generation and 3MW/50MWh (17 hours) of storage that RayGen says will be able to supply the grid with “day-night renewable electricity.”
In April 2020, Photon Energy signed up as a minor equity partner, taking an small stake in RayGen and agreeing to act as project developer and EPC contractor future projects, including plans for a 200MW solar plant with around 100MW/1000MWh storage.
“RayGen technology tackles head-on the problem of intermittency of solar energy as it combines high efficiency concentrated PV generation with thermal absorption and storage, providing for the highest energy density of any solar technology available today,” said Michael Gartner, Photon Energy Australia managing director and CTO of Photon Energy Group, in comments on Thursday.
“The sound interest of highly reputable investors and the increased valuation of the company validates our initial investment and we are convinced that our second investment in RayGen will lead to advances in both optimising EPC outcomes and on developing utility-scale projects globally,” Gartner said.
RayGen CEO Richard Payne said the strategic partnership with Photon was critical in driving the deployment of its technology into a rapidly growing global market.
“We are thrilled to receive a follow-on investment from Photon Energy who share our vision to accelerate the transition to renewable energy with RayGen’s highly innovative solar plus storage technology,” Payne said.
RayGen has not, at this stage, released any more details about the investment round, but said it planned to use the newly raised funds to get up the 50MWh Solar Power Plant One pilot, to construct and commission a 100MW-scale manufacturing facility for its solar modules, and to develop the 1,000MWh Solar Power Plant Two to financial close.
