Equinor’s investment is part of RayGen’s Series C, which will fund capacity expansion of RayGen’s proprietary solar modules and a 50MWh pilot project to demonstrate the technical and commercial capabilities of RayGen’s technology – the Solar Power Plant (SPP). The SPP enables a larger utilization of solar energy through co-generation of power and heat, stored as hot water.
This long-duration and low-cost storage is connected to an organic rankine cycle turbine to discharge the heat energy as electric power. The elements of RayGen’s system can be operated independently to import or export power to the grid depending on prices and other factors.
RayGen is tackling one of the major impediments to larger scale solar deployments – more closely matching supply of solar power with the demand for electric energy. The SPP pilot project will represent the first commercial solar + storage integration providing dispatchable solar power into the grid and aims to pave the way for more and significantly larger projects in the time to come.
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, Managing Director Equinor Ventures.
