Four early-stage companies are announced as the winners of the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge II, which was designed to identify innovative solutions to reduce the levelized cost of electricity for photovoltaic (PV) systems. SunRISE TechBridge Challenge II is a collaboration between Royal DSM, Fraunhofer TechBridge and Greentown Labs. The awards include Greentown Labs Start-up Acceleration program, technical validation services from the Fraunhofer R&D network, and eligibility for investment by DSM Venturing and/or partnership with DSM Advanced Solar.
The SunRISE TechBridge Challenge II follows the success of the first SunRISE TechBridge Challenge in 2016 where five winners were selected and two awardees – QD Solar and WattGlass received DSM Venturing investments.
56 applications were received by the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge II. Based on a multi-stage review process we are very pleased to announce the following winners and awards:
- Leading Edge Crystal Technologies (Cambridge, MA) – novel manufacturing process to make silicon wafers with higher efficiency and lower cost that fit into the existing module manufacturing processes without any changes.
- NOMADD Desert Solar Solutions (Saudi Arabia) – low-cost waterless automated solar panel cleaning mechanism, which significantly reduces yield losses due to dust.
- SunDensity (Boston, MA) – proprietary photonic technology to produce nano-coated solar glass that maximizes conversion of solar radiation into electric power.
- SunSniffer (Germany) – low-cost module-integrated sensor for monitoring PV systems in real-time, enabling increase of energy output and lower maintenance costs.
All awardees will receive Greentown Launch and DSM Partnership/Investment Eligibility awards. In addition, one of the awardees will receive the Fraunhofer Validation Study. Award details are as follows:
- Greentown Labs Start-up Acceleration (“Greentown Launch”): Greentown Launch delivers high quality, solar-PV-specific acceleration training for solar start-ups that enables participants to obtain feedback and insight directly from future customers, fine-tune business models and go-to-market strategies, and develop investment plans in partnership with DSM and Greentown Labs’ acceleration team and experts.
- Fraunhofer Validation Study Award: The winner will receive a validation project with the Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE in Boston, MA, sponsored by DSM. Through this award, the awardee can access the global technical validation services from the world-renowned Fraunhofer R&D network, thereby accelerating the technology development of the awardee. DSM, Fraunhofer CSE and the awardee will jointly tailor the validation project.
News item from Fraunhofer USA, Inc.