Solyndra Amasses $600M for Totally Tubular Thin-Film Solar
Secretive thin-film solar startup Solyndra unveiled for the first time today its solar module design for commercial rooftops and funding totaling more than $600 million. The company says its design can cut the cost of installing solar rooftops in half and reduce installation time by a third.
The design wraps the photovoltaic copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) compound around a series of tubes until they resemble a row of black, fluorescent lights. Each module is curved to catch the maximum amount of light from any direction, so the panels don’t need to be carefully angled and laboriously secured like traditional PV panels. Check out the manufacturing and installation video after the jump to see how it all works.
Given the promise of such substantial cost cuts, the technology already has a line of customers — even though the three-year-old company has been in stealth this whole time. Solyndra says it has $1.2 billion in multiyear customer contracts on which it is just starting to deliver. The next step is to ramp up manufacturing. The plan, Solyndra tells us, is to expand total production capacity up to 420 megawatts annually. The company currently operates a 110-megawatt-per-year fabrication facility at its headquarters.
Solyndra filled its coffers with big investments from a number well-known info tech-cum-cleantech VCs including Redpoint Ventures, RockPort Capital, Argonaut, CMEA Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners. The startup also has several especially well-heeled backerss like the Walton family fund Madrone Capital, Abu Dubai’s MASDAR and Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund.
I can see how you’d get more energy per roof this way with all the reflected and evening light. However, since they’re using a lot more PV material, and some of it is necessarily always facing away from the sun, I don’t see how this will make it cost less.
“series of tubes” … like the Interwebs?
[...] (CIGS) compound and wraps it around a series of tubes which better capture sunlight. [Source: Earth2Tech] Suntech forms solar farm venture but may be expecting a drop in overall solar panel sales — [...]
I wish Solyndra and Skyfuel would get together and combine a cheap solar cell with a cheap reflector.
[...] No Comments Posted October 13th, 2008 at 6:30 pm in Hitlines,Startups Solyndra, a startup which just came out of the woodwork with its rooftop solar system and $600 million in funding, showed off its solar technology at the [...]
[...] a startup which just came out of the woodwork with its rooftop solar system and $600 million in funding, showed off its solar technology at the [...]
[...] Via::Earth2Tech [...]
[...] a startup which just came out of the woodwork with its rooftop solar system and $600 million in funding, showed off its solar technology at the [...]
[...] No Comments Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am in Startups Now that solar startup Solyndra has come out into the sun, we’re slowly getting more details on the company’s technology and business. Today [...]
[...] that solar startup Solyndra has come out into the sun, we’re slowly getting more details on the company’s technology and business. Today Solyndra [...]
[...] Nearby Abu Dhabi has already caught the cleantech bug, with its Masdar Initiative recently moving in on the UK wind market. It has also invested in solar, putting cash into California-based Solyndra’s $600 million round earlier this month. [...]
[...] guarantee represents a big vote of confidence in the venture capital-backed startup that came out of the woodwork and began making deliveries in earnest less than a year ago, [...]
[...] Calif.-based manufacturer of thin-film solar tubes, stayed quiet for years, but came out of stealth with an announcement that it raised a massive $600 million from investors. Since then the company has announced sales contracts of approximately $1.8 billion, and in recent [...]
[...] Calif.-based manufacturer of thin-film solar tubes, stayed quiet for years, but came out of stealth with an announcement that it raised a massive $600 million from investors. Since then the company has announced sales contracts of approximately $1.8 billion, and in recent [...]