Belgian start-up Noak has raised €5 million in seed funding to scale and industrialise its perovskite-silicon tandem solar technology. The company was created as a spin-off of Leuven-based research and development centre imec and Hasselt University (UHasselt).
The funding comes from Belgium’s Helios Foundation, climate investment company Nuhma and V2HFin, a wholly owned subsidiary of Flemish Energy Holding that invests in Flemish start-ups and scale-ups.
Noak is building on the intellectual property developed by imec and UHasselt through more than a decade of research at the university’s Institute for Materials Research. Its technology uses a perovskite layer stack based on proprietary chemical compositions and scalable deposition methods.
According to imec and UHasselt, the technology has undergone five years of outdoor testing at more than ten sites across Asia, Europe and North America. The test environments included intense sunlight, heavy rain, extreme heat and temperatures below zero. The next development phase will focus on demonstrating long-term stability and performance at industrial scale, which the partners identify as important for bankability and commercial deployment.
The tandem cell design is paired with Noak’s proprietary 3D woven back-contact foil. By placing the electrical connections on the rear of the cell, the approach removes the need for front-side metallisation, potentially reducing shading losses and improving material use and end-of-life recycling.
The cells can also be divided into smaller sub-cells connected in series and parallel. Noak says this provides design flexibility and can reduce metal consumption, including the use of expensive and scarce materials.
CEO Geert Palmers said Noak aims to build a value chain through industrial partnerships around the world while avoiding dependence on vulnerable critical-material supply chains. The company said the approach is intended to help it operate amid protectionist measures and volatile global markets.
Sources: pv magazine.