Monday, 18th October 2021
Melbourne Australia
• RayGen today announces AUD $13 million of new investment, a follow-on to the $42 million investment announced in June 2021
• This new investment includes $9 million from Equinor Ventures, who joins as a strategic shareholder alongside AGL Energy, Photon Energy Group, Schlumberger New Energy and Chevron Technology Ventures.
• Equinor Ventures joins RayGen as a strategic partner to develop future projects and will join RayGen’s Board of Directors, alongside new directors Leonie Walsh (Independent) and Tyler Durham (Schlumberger).
Series C funds will be used to deliver:
• 50MWh RayGen Power Plant Carwarp (well progressed in construction)
• 100MW manufacturing line; and
• Pipeline of one or more 1,000+MWh projects to financial close.
RayGen Resources Pty Ltd (RayGen), an Australian renewable energy technology company, today announced that it has partnered with Equinor Ventures to close out its Series C Capital Raise. Equinor (OSE & NYSE: EQNR) will invest AUD $9 million into RayGen, subject to Australian Foreign Investment Review Board approval. Equinor Ventures’ investment adds to previously announced $27 million private funding into RayGen by AGL Energy (ASX: AGL), Photon Energy NV (WSE & PSE: PEN), Schlumberger New Energy (NYSE: SLB), and Chevron Technology Ventures (NYSE: CVX) and others. The private funding has been supported with $15 million of grant funding by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), taking RayGen’s total Series C investment round to $55 million.
RayGen’s Series C investment round will be used to deliver a 50MWh flagship project; as well as a 100MW manufacturing line for PV Ultra modules; and a pipeline of one or more 1,000+MWh projects to financial close. The construction of RayGen’s 50MWh project, located in Carwarp Victoria, is well underway with commissioning scheduled in 2022. This project will represent the first commercial solar + storage integration providing dispatchable solar power into the grid and will pave the way for future project developments with RayGen’s strategic partners.
The strategic investment by Equinor Ventures includes extensive collaboration to accelerate the deployment of RayGen’s technology. Equinor Ventures is Equinor’s corporate venture capital arm dedicated to investing in ambitious growth companies driving change in the energy industry.
Equinor Ventures will join the Board of Directors to play a close role in RayGen’s strategic development, alongside two other recently appointed directors in Leonie Walsh and Schlumberger’s Tyler Durham.
“Equinor’s ambition is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and a key enabler for this is to make renewable energy sources even more competitive and reliable. We see that RayGen has a unique value proposition of making solar energy truly dispatchable by integrating low cost, long duration storage with highly efficient solar power generation. We further believe that this combination will support a higher share of renewables in the power mix, which aligns well with Equinor’s ambitions and the energy transition at large. We look forward to working closely with RayGen on the exciting journey ahead of us” says Gareth Burns, Vice President Equinor Ventures.
“We are delighted to welcome Equinor Ventures to the RayGen team. The strategic partnership brings tremendous value to the business” said Richard Payne, Chief Executive Officer of RayGen. “We are excited by their vision, support and depth of engagement to accelerate the deployment of our technology into a rapidly expanding market together with our other strategic partners”.
MaxEn Capital Advisors, Ltd. (New York) acted as sole financial advisor to RayGen on the transaction, led by Senior Managing Director Howard Margulis.
PwC Australia acted as commercial, financial and taxation advisor to Equinor.
About RayGen
RayGen Resources Pty. Ltd. is an Australian technology company with world-leading capability in the next generation of solar power and electricity storage. RayGen’s technology provides dispatchable renewable electricity to meet various market demands, including supply into the grid, co-generation and green hydrogen production. The technology consists of RayGen’s proprietary PV Ultra solar co-generation, coupled with electro-thermal energy storage technologies. The technology has been developed in Melbourne, Australia and is protected by six patent families. RayGen manufactures its high-efficiency solar modules at its 25MW manufacturing facility in Melbourne. For more information, please visit www.raygen.com.
About Equinor
Equinor, a broad energy company with more than 21,000 colleagues committed to providing affordable energy for societies worldwide and taking a leading role in the energy transition. Equinor is on a journey to net zero emissions through optimising oil and gas portfolio, accelerating growth in renewables and pioneering developments in carbon capture and hydrogen.