Here’s a roundup of the latest green technology developments.
SoloPower announces investors — The Milpitas, Calif. make of photovoltaic solar cells and modules ,said it has $30 million more in a second round of capital. That adds to its previous $10 million. It’s well-funded, but not near nearly as well as some other players using the similar material, copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS), to make newer, low-cost solar cells. Nanosolar, Heliovolt, Solyndra and Miasole have all raised significantly more cash. We reported SolorPower’s funding yesterday, but the company hadn’t disclosed investor names. Today it released those names: Convexa Capital, which led the investment, Scatec, Spencer Energy and existing investors Crosslink Capital, Firsthand Capital Management and Musea Ventures.
MWOE Solar, yet another “thin-film” solar panel maker, raises $7M — The company, based in Ohio, received the funding from Emerald Technology Ventures and NGP Energy Technology Partners. Like all the companies mentioned above, it uses a thin-film technology. Thin-film refers to the thin layer of CIGS or other material deposited onto a substrate, which makes solar panels more flexible than traditional silicon-based solar technology (see image above, which comes from MWOE’s site).
SNTech, low-power motor maker, raises $1.2M — The company, of Seoul, Korea, makes low-power brushless DC motors for household appliances. SAIL Venture Partners won a quarter ownership of the company, in return for the investment (VentureWire; subscription required).
2 Comments
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Li said:
Any photovoltaic solar cells and modules maker wants to shift their manufactoring or OEM to China?
Looking for this kind of cooperation.
Cheers
LiEmail: lihongrui@gmail.com
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Alison Chaiken said:
Matt, thin film solar technologies are not necessarily more flexible than traditional single-crystal silicon. PV technologies can be described as “thin film” or “bulk.” Bulk PV is made from a crystal which is sliced via a saw from a boule of material. Sunpower, for example, works on bulk poly-Si technology.
Thin-film PV units are made by depositing semiconductors like Si or CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) on a substrate which is not a semiconductor. For example, Powerfilm deposits amorphous Si on plastic, Unisolar deposits amorphous Si on stainless steel, and Nanosolar deposits CIGS on something or other. Whether or not these thin-film solar cells are flexible depends on whether or not the substrates are flexible. Glass is a popular substrate for thin-film PV and it’s not too flexible.
Why do we care about thin-film if the PV cells are not necessarily flexible? It’s because thin-film cells have the potential to be more efficient (like CIGS), cheaper (poly-Si or amorphous Si) or more lightweight than bulk Si. For most applications, flexibility is not important.
Hope this helps!
