UK organic solar start-up Eight19 has launched a 'Series B' round of funding for £5 million (€5.96 million).
The round is expected to close in Q2 2012. The funds raised will be used by Eight19 to develop its printed solar cells. The firm recently announced commissioning of a pilot production facility at its Cambridge headquarters and its roll-to-roll line will consume considerable amounts of materials as the company develops its printed solar cells for commercial production.
The money will also be used to support Eight19's business supplying integrated LED lamps and mobile phone charger systems, powered by conventional solar panels, for off-grid applications to replace kerosene lamps.
Eight19's IndiGo solar lamp and charger kits are made affordable to users without access to electricity by a pay-as-you-go financing scheme. After paying off the value of the kit, the user owns it outright. This can then be traded in, to go towards upgrading to a more powerful solar-charging system with more lamps and the capacity to power a small radio.
Trials
Earlier in January 2012 Eight19 announced the rollout of pay-as-you-go solar products in Kenya, with 4,000 units scheduled for deployment in Q1 2012. IndiGo was launched in Kenya in September 2011, and is being rolled out into other parts of Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
It is these trials and rollouts that will form the basis of a market for Eight19's printed solar cell modules when they start being made in commercial quantities in around 18 months' time, CEO Simon Bransfield-Garth and COO Kieran Reynolds discussed in a recent exclusive interview for +Plastic Electronics magazine.
Solar modules made on reels of plastic and the systems designed to integrate them, will be cheaper and easier to ship, transport, and install in off-grid communities compared with glass-based silicon modules.
Eight19 received £4.5 million of funding in September 2010 from the Carbon Trust and Rhodia, and it is expected that the new round will be taken up by a combination of existing and new investors.
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Eight19
Cambridge-headquartered Eight19 is launching a portable energy harvesting system in Africa, to provide pay-as-you-go solar electricity
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Eight19 completes successful trials of portable solar power system
Cambridge-based Eight19 is ready to begin full production of its portable energy harvesting system, following successful trials in Africa
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Organic solar firm launches pay-as-you-go energy system in Africa
Cambridge-headquartered Eight19 is launching a portable energy harvesting system in Africa and India, to provide pay-as-you-go solar electricity
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Plastic electronics promises energy everywhere
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