SoloPower— a manufacturer of flexible, thin-film solar cells and modules— has raised another $43.7 million in an equity round this month, according to a new SEC filing. Investors in the round include: Greentech Capital in New York, and Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco. Earlier investors in the SoloPower include: Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Crosslink Capital, Convexa, and Firsthand.
In February this year, SoloPower locked a $197 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office to build a “facility that, when completed and at full capacity, is expected to produce approximately 400MW of thin-film Photovoltaic (PV) modules annually,” according to a company press statement.
Based in San Jose, SoloPower is currently building its largest manufacturing plant (with the aforementioned funds) in Oregon. The company expects to spend $364 million on building the plant, and to employ about 500 people, full-time, once the facility is running at full capacity.
The company uses a roll-to-roll electroplating processes to manufacture its roll-up solar panels, a technique it has claimed will keep the costs of its CIGS (or thin-film) solar panels competitive versus other technologies on the market. While SoloPower has attracted a lot of cash and support, it faces stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers like Trina Solar, and public companies like First Solar, also in the thin-film game.
SoloPower is a producer of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules. The SoloPower mission is to mass-produce PV modules for ubiquitous applications on a global scale at a cost that is 1) lower than the traditional wafer-based solar technologies, and 2) at parity with that of conventional power grid. SoloPower is manufacturing and commercializing a new generation of high-efficiency, low-cost Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide (CIGS) based devices to enable solar electricity generation at a cost that is competitive with traditional methods.
Crosslink Capital is a leading stage-independent venture capital and growth equity firm with over $1.5 billion in assets. Crosslink, which traces its roots back to 1989, was among the first and largest investment firms in the U.S. to integrate public and private growth investing in three families of funds: venture capital funds, long/short hedge funds and a unique hybrid crossover fund. This strategy allows Crosslink to partner with its portfolio companies on a long-term basis. With more than 20...
Hudson Clean Energy Partners is a private equity firm formed in 2007 to invest in the dynamic and fast-growing clean energy markets. Members of the Hudson senior team formerly led the U.S. alternative energy investing platform at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.’s Special Situations Group, headed renewable energy investments for General Electric’s (“GEâ€) Energy Financial Services unit, and served as Chairman of the Energy Group and Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking Department for the Americas.
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
