Cyrium snags funding, aims for 45% efficient solar
Monday, December 3rd, 2007Ottawa-based Cyrium Technologies doesn’t get much coverage, but the company is quietly making inroads with its nanotech-boosted triple junction solar cells, which are made of layers of gallium arsenide and other group III and IV compounds on a germanium substrate. The company reportedly uses quantum dot technology to get higher conversion efficiencies, according to an article last year in Photon International magazine. The cells, which are being targeted at concentrated solar PV companies, are capable of achieving 45 per cent efficiency under a concentration of 300 suns.
Their initial market: improving the solar power capability of satellites, which are increasingly becoming energy hogs up in space. But land-based applications are also being targeted.
The company announced yesterday that it has raised more money — though it wouldn’t say exactly how much — in a follow-up round. It did say that to date it has raised $5.5 million (Canadian) from investors that include Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Pangaea Ventures Ltd. and BDC Venture Capital. Since they raised about $3 million before (at least that’s all I’ve heard about so far), then I assume today’s announcement involves a $2.5 million follow-on.
Solar companies claiming breakthrough in cell efficiency may be a dime-a-dozen, but perhaps it’s the quietest ones in the sea of voices that actually deliver on promises. Who knows?
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.