Redwood City, California-based solar developer RadianX has secured $9 million in combined venture and project financing for its pervoskite solar module manufacturing business.

Announced Nov. 5, the financing aims to help RadianX scale its financing for solar modules going into connected devices, wearables, and other consumer electronics. Specifically, the financing package includes a seed round co-led by SOSV and Twynam, along with participation from a group of other investment funds.

The Californian manufacturer plans to use the new funding to establish an initial automated production line, with an annual capacity of 6 MW. RadianX officials say the new line will support PV module manufacturing on a commercial scale, and give a proof of concept to even larger manufacturing models.

“Most connected devices still depend on a battery that someone has to replace,” says Josh Douglas, co-founder and chief operating officer of RadianX. “Our job is to turn that light those devices already receive into power, to drive increased uptime and even reduce or eliminate the battery.”

RadianX has also announced a partnership with Pacific Union Technology Precision Manufacturing (PUT). The publicly traded manufacturer of precision components will help RadianX finance the new dedicated production line for perovskite modules.

Finding new use cases for perovskite modules

RadianX develops ultra-thin solar modules, the company says, with the capability to manufacture these modules as thin as 0.7 millimeters. Along with customizable dimensions and output voltages, the modules can easily slot into existing product surfaces to generate solar power for the product itself.

The manufacturer is currently targeting applications where more conventional batteries may require frequent replacement, or recharging. RadianX representatives say the technology was expressly designed for sensors, wireless asset trackers, wearables, connected devices, and physical AI systems.

Company officials note that perovskite technology has attracted interest as a potential alternative to silicon solar panels, especially for more lightweight applications. However, material degradation and efficiency challenges have constrained commercialization of these products.

RadianX believes it has alleviated a few of these problems, receiving TÜV certification across all three categories of IEC TS 63163. The company’s products exposed to outdoor conditions also received Category 3 certification, and the firm’s solar panels reported a conversion efficiency of 22.33%, a world record at the time of testing.

“By building our first automated 6MW production line, we are creating a blueprint we can replicate at larger scale anywhere in the world,” said Vivian Qu, co-founder and CEO of RadianX.

— Solar Builder magazine