We are pleased to announce that Parkwalk has made a further investment in
OxfordPV through the
Opportunities EIS Fund and a Parkwalk Syndicate.
Oxford Photovoltaics is an Oxford-based technology business, founded in 2010, formed on technology originally developed in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford under Professor Henry Snaith and his academic team of 20 scientists.
Professor Snaith is leading an intensive and wide-ranging programme to develop a thin-film solar cell using a perovskite-structure to enhance solar absorption and conversion. The programme is advancing rapidly with lab cell efficiency of more than 17%, with identified enhancements which should deliver close to 20% efficiency within the next 12 months.
Oxford PV envisages the technology being utilised to enhance the performance of silicon-based solar cells by adding a perovskite layer on top of the silicon to create a tandem cell structure. This is expected to add up to 5% to the efficiency of a 20% silicon cells, taking their performance towards 25%. Future generations of the product will include perovskite-on-perovskite cells, where performance could reach 30%.
This is extremely attractive to Solar panel manufacturers as they strive to enhance current solar cell efficiencies. As a result OxfordPV already has dialogue with the leading commercial companies in the field and is confident that its’ technology is scalable, easy to use and will provide payback to customers of around 12 months. For OxfordPV, it makes excellent commercial sense to ride with their customers into a large existing market which is already valued at around $100bn per annum, and growing rapidly.
The technology is protected by 19 patent families applied for.
The Parkwalk team first committed capital to OxfordPV in April 2011 and has since provided further capital for investment in every funding round. On the basis of the price of the last funding round, the investments have delivered an IRR of 43.1% on the first two investment tranches and 104.6% on the third tranche.
Oxford PV believe the global tandem cell market will be in excess of $100bn by 2023, and the building-integrated PV market a further $10bn. This latest round of funding will help take the technology and the company into close commercial relationships with end customers and help build a position within these very large markets. This technology has huge potential and the Management Team have deep experience at building substantial, profitable and valuable companies for shareholders.
The Science underpinning OxfordPV is ground breaking. As energy generated from solar cells competes, without subsidy, with carbon based fuels, The Tandem solar cells being developed by the OxfordPV team offer the opportunity for the solar energy market to significantly undercut the price of other mainstream energy sources. As such the financial opportunity is substantial and Parkwalk believe that,while there is still technological and commercial risk, OxfordPV could become a significant global company.
