Holy Solar Thin-Film Funding: SoloPower Raises $200M?
In the past couple weeks there’s been news of hundreds of millions pumped into thin-film solar startups, with both Nanosolar and AVA Solar announcing massive rounds. Well, it’s not over yet, folks. This morning Venture Wire says that thin film solar player SoloPower has raised a grand ol’ $200 million to scale manufacturing up at a 100-megawatt-per-year plant (via VentureBeat).
The company wouldn’t confirm or deny the deal to us, but it seems consistent with the trend — thin film companies heading back to their investors to transition to manufacturing and fight the competition. SoloPower produces solar material out of Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS), and is competing with Nanosolar, Heliovolt, Miasole and others, who are some of the most well-funded companies in cleantech.
The report doesn’t say who backed SoloPower, but likely some of the company’s original investors went in. SoloPower raised a Series A in June 2006, led by Crosslink Capital and Firsthand Capital Management, and a Series B round in July 2007 led by Convexa Capital and Alf Bjørseth, co-founder of REC Group.
[...] of dollars have been invested in thin-film solar startups in the past few [...]
Here’s a related story on Nanosolar: http://www.holysolar.com/nanosolar-thin-alternative-energy/
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yes, lots of money is being pumped in. if you look at spain they are building up to 60 new solar thermal plants
[...] the past few months as they move into commercial production. San Jose, Calif.’s SoloPower pulled in $200 million in funding and Nanosolar, also based in San Jose, grabbed an extra $300 million. Industry leader First Solar, [...]