RayGen to scale up manufacturing after $51 million raise

Solar cell manufacturer and renewable energy project developer RayGen Resources has completed a $51 million capital raise, led by oil and gas services company SLB.

In a statement on Monday from state government investment vehicle Breakthrough Victoria – which contributed $20 million through the round – it said that RayGen would use the funding “to secure manufacturing capability and create additional engineering and manufacturing jobs in Victoria”.

RayGen was established in 2010 and its solution combines non-polysilicon-based solar PV panels and thermal water-based energy generation and storage, with a claimed “70 per cent round-trip efficiency, which is significantly higher than other electro-thermal storage technologies on the market.”

BV joins SLB, Equinor Ventures, AGL Energy, Photon Energy Group, Chevron Technology Ventures and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which were involved in a 2021 Series C round.

“[BV CEO Grant Dooley] and the broader team at Breakthrough Victoria are natural partners for us as we embark on our growth journey and mission to accelerate the transition to renewable energy with our innovative technology,” said RayGen Resources CEO, Richard Payne.

Payne’s company manufactures its solar cells at the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, and according to a report in The Australian Financial Review is preparing to begin manufacturing heliostats – mirrors used to focus sunlight – in partnership with Bosch at Clayton, Victoria.

It describes its generation technology as having similarities to concentrated solar power, and “focuses sunlight using tracking mirrors; but unlike anything else, RayGen uses a field of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central receiver of photovoltaic modules.”

It runs a flagship 4 MW solar and 3 MW/50 MWh (17 hours) storage installation at Carwarp in Mildura, NSW, which has been selling energy to the grid for the last two years.

Last August the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced a $10 million grant to Raygen, supporting improvement of design, material costs, and conduct basic and front-end engineering design (FEED) of a planned, utility-scale 200 megawatt solar and 115 megawatt / 1.2 gigawatt hour storage deployment at Carwarp.

Picture: A RayGen receiver (credit ARENA)

Further reading

RayGen Resources opens new site, gets $10 million ARENA funding

Breakthrough Victoria shells out $12 million for peanut allergy treatment developer Aravax