Chinese-Canadian solar module manufacturer Canadian Solar has agreed to invest an unspecified sum in German start-up Solarworx.
The investment was made through a Series A financing round that also saw the participation of Netherlands-based sustainable energy innovation engine EIT InnoEnergy and the German development finance institution Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) subsidiary of German state-owned development lender KfW Group.
Solarworx intends to use the raised capital to expand its product portfolio and sales activities. It currently offers the off-grid photovoltaic solution Solego, which comes with a battery storage system with a capacity of 80 or 160 watt-hours.
The Berlin-based start-up wants to achieve its overarching goal of providing a secure supply of solar power to around 1.2 billion people worldwide without access to the power grid. The off-grid solutions are compatible with all important “pay-as-you-go” payment platforms.
Popular content
Solarworx sees additional market potential in its direct-current network solution MESH, which is a hardware-independent system that is claimed to be able to distribute solar power to between two and 100 households and small and medium-sized companies. The plan is to launch the product in a pre-commercial stage in the second quarter of the year.
“In Africa, everything is defined by price,” said Solarworx founder Felix Boldt. “Our solution cuts out the need for technicians and can be customized to accommodate individual power demands and available budgets.”
The current core markets for the company are Cameroon, Zambia and Nigeria. Canadian Solar's strong network in Africa, consisting of suppliers, sales channels and logistics, is expected to help Solarworx to further reduce its costs.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
1 comment
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.