Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL) has invested $29 million in German solar photovoltaic company NexWafe GmbH (NexWafe).
The investment by Reliance will accelerate product and technology development for NexWafe, including completion of the commercial development of NexWafe’s solar photovoltaic products on prototype lines in Freiburg.
Reliance and NexWafe have also entered into an India Strategic Partnership Agreement providing for joint technology development and commercialization, at scale, of high-efficiency monocrystalline “green solar wafers.”
Reliance, through this partnership, will secure access to NexWafe’s proprietary technology and plans to build large-scale wafer manufacturing facilities in India using the NexWafe processes and technology.
NexWafe is developing and producing monocrystalline silicon wafers grown directly from inexpensive raw materials, going directly from the gas phase to finished wafers. This proprietary process obviates the need for costly and energy intensive intermediate steps such as polysilicon production and ingot pulling on which traditional wafer manufacturing relies.