Members of the second cohort of the GCxN programme. Image: Shell.
Three new companies have been selected for the Shell Gamechanger Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN) programme.
The start-ups will benefit from technical and capital resources, helping to accelerate their technologies towards commercialisation. All three companies are focused on solar and storage and were chosen following a multistage competitive evaluation.
Chosen for this, the third intake to the GCxN programme, is BlueDot Photonics, which is looking to develop a cost-effective and scalable way to manufacture solar panels using perovskite materials, Icarus, which is focused on developing a hybrid solar-thermal photovoltaic system and lastly Jolt Energy Storage, which is using organic compounds to develop flow batteries.
Startups are nominated for the programme by Channel Partners, a network of 63 cleantech incubators and universities.
Companies can receive up to £200,793 (US$250,000) if they are chosen, with the opportunity for follow-up funding.
Haibin Xu, Shell’s GCxN program manager said the startups had been selected to help achieve “a lower-carbon future”.
“They are looking at the full life cycle of solar and storage performance, and their technologies have the potential to drastically improve functionality and meet a wide range of real-world needs.”
The first cohort to be taken into the GCxN programme joined in December 2018, and the second announced in November 2019.