Semprius has secured US$20 million in its first tranche of Series C venture fundraising for a pilot high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) module production plant. Siemens Venture Capital led the investment round and was joined by Arch Venture Partners, Applied Ventures, Illinois Ventures, Intersouth Partners, In-Q-Tel and GVC Investment.

The pilot plant will enable Semprius to ramp up and optimise the development of future large-capacity plants, through investment in its proprietary micro-transfer printing process, microcell design and other manufacturing processes.

“Demand for CPV is expected to grow exponentially over the next several years to greater than 6GW by 2020,” said Joe Carr, president and CEO of Semprius. “Semprius modules have been under on-sun testing for several years now with excellent field performance. From our proprietary micro-cell technology to the enclosure and everything in between, we’ve designed our modules to be efficient, low-cost and reliable.”