North AmericaTandem PV, a California-based technology startup specializing in ultra-high-efficiency perovskite and silicon tandem solar panels, announced the initial $6 million close of its $12M Series A financing round. The round was led by Bioeconomy Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, through its new Planetary Technologies fund, with participation from an international solar manufacturer and a US utility company.
Tandem PV will use this investment to build a pilot manufacturing facility in San Jose, California, which will enable the company to enter its next growth phase in producing commercial-grade perovskite and silicon tandem solar panels.
"Our mission is to find scalable Planetary Technologies that can help the world mature beyond fossil fuels at the pace necessary to avoid unsustainable warming," said Rik Wehbring, a Managing Director of Bioeconomy Capital and a Board Member at Tandem PV. "Tandem PV is commercializing transformative technology that achieves this goal."
Tandem PV was co-founded by materials science Ph.D. Colin Bailie and solar industry pioneer Chris Eberspacher in 2016 as part of the US Department of Energy's exclusive Cyclotron Road accelerator, with the mission to achieve 50% of energy generation from solar by 2050. The company believes this ambitious goal can be partially realized by enabling net-zero energy buildings and the electrification of everything at the residential and micro-grid scale to meet a core need for 50 million residential households in the US alone.
We have tremendous market pull from residential solar installers, end users, equipment distributors and utilities—the industry is ready for more sustainable, efficient and cost-effective solar panels.
—said Colin Bailie, co-founder and CEO of Tandem PV.
Tandem PV transforms traditional silicon solar panels into high-efficiency tandems by leveraging perovskite-coated front glass via a drop-in manufacturing replacement, sharply decreasing installed systems costs and significantly increasing module manufacturing profit margins.
Bailie developed this unique technology during his doctorate at Stanford University. It is poised to offer 50% higher efficiency than the average solar panel and drive solar system costs down by 30% or more , contributing to substantially higher photovoltaic penetration worldwide. When replacing traditional panels, this tandem solar panel technology can potentially offset "three gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year," noted Chris Eberspacher, co-founder and Managing Director of Tandem PV.
"Tandem PV is on a fast track to develop, demonstrate and commercialize perovskite and silicon tandem solar panels for homes across the United States and worldwide," added Eberspacher.
