Sunderland-based Power Roll raises £5.8m and recruits for global solar scale-up

Sunderland, UK 11 February 2021 – Power Roll, a developer of ultra-low-cost and lightweight flexible film for energy generation and storage, has raised £5.8m over two recent funding rounds.

Equity investors in the most recent round include Indigo 7 Ventures (i7v), Kero Development Partners and RAB Capital. Power Roll also converted a £1,250,000 loan into equity as part of the Government’s Future Fund scheme, which was launched to support UK firms through the Coronavirus pandemic, enabling them to continue to break new ground in technology and innovation.

Finance Durham Fund, which was established by Durham County Council, invested £250,000 in Power Roll in a previous round announced by the company in September 2020. Power Roll will expand its business by building a pilot manufacturing plant in County Durham during 2021.

Power Roll is pursuing an IP licensing model with manufacturing partners to accelerate deployment of its technology. To support that aim, Power Roll recently welcomed four new recruits to the business to increase resource in technology, process engineering and business development. Don Scott, new Director of Business Development joins Power Roll from Arm Ltd, pioneers in IP licensing, and has 25 years of experience in tech sales, business development, and partner relationship management. “Power Roll’s flexible solar film has huge potential in a wide range of sectors,” said Scott. “I am looking forward to building our commercial ecosystem, partner network and IP licensing programme.”

“The success of our latest funding round will ensure that we remain on track to meet key milestones as we scale up the technology,” commented Neil Spann, chief executive, Power Roll. “As well as opening our roll-to-roll pilot plant later this year, we are building our team and we also expect to announce first customers and manufacturing partners.”

Power Roll’s solar film will deliver the lowest levelised cost of electricity for any solar technology and a carbon footprint that is 20x lower than silicon PV. Power Roll’s technology simplifies manufacturing by using high speed roll-to-roll production processes, which eliminate multiple, expensive process steps typical of other solar photovoltaic technologies.

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Editors notes

Power Roll, headquartered in Sunderland, has developed a unique, flexible, light weight solar film capable of producing ultra-low-cost green electricity that is up to 20 times cheaper to make than existing flexible PV. By applying different coatings to its versatile microgroove design, Power Roll can also use the film for energy storage and to manufacture capacitors. Power Roll’s microgroove film is suitable for non-load-bearing rooftops, building integration, transport, portable applications, off-grid projects and IoT sensors.

Twitter: @PowerRollPV