Investing in solar efficiency

Low Carbon Accelerator has invested a further £320,000 in Imperial College spinout QuantaSol after the company’s solar cells demonstrated consistently high levels of effiency.

London-based LCA invested £480,000 in June 2007 as part of an overall £1.35m seed funding round which also included investment from Imperial Innovations, Numis Securities, Netscientific, and Sheffield University Enterprise. Low Carbon Accelerator and Imperial Innovations were co-lead equity investors.

QuantaSol will provide solar photovoltaic (PV) cells for use in concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems for the fast growing utility-scale solar power generation market. Quantasol used the original funds to produce prototypes of its Quantum Well Photovoltaic (QWPV) cells and to engage with potential customers for such cells and will use the additional funds to continue their product development.

Currently, the world efficiency record for single junction cells, held by the US company Varian, stands at 27.8 percent and has been unequalled for 20 years. Quantasol's cells are said to be consistently recording efficiency levels of 27.5 per cent,.