VentureBeat

Investors Leader Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank have shined on solar cell company Innovalight, providing $5 million in new financing toward the development of silicon solar modules so small they can be painted onto surfaces like ink.

The Sunnyvale, Calif. company uses liquid processing of silicon to produce nanosize solar prarticles that are not only more efficient than crystalline wafers, but also much cheaper to make than regular solar panels. It received $28 million last year at this time to work on the same project. And Silicon Valley investors remain enthusiastic about the solar industry, hoping to carve out a piece of what is predicted to be a $36 billion pie by 2010.

Innovalight isn’t the only player when it comes to flexible solar tech. Several companies are working on ink models using materials other than silicon, like Konarka, Nanosolar, Miasole, Solyndra, SoloPower and Heliovolt. Nanosolar and Solyndra recently brought in $300 million and $600 million respectively to develop panels and rooftop installations utilizing a thin film of solar modules. Meanwhile, Konarka has hired a flock of engineers from Polaroid and plans to add 100 more to its headcount over the next couple of years. These companies focus largely on a film composition called CIGS, comprised of copper, indium, gallium and selenide.

Innovalight previously received funding from Apax Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Harris & Harris Group, Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures. CEO Conrad Burke wrote a guest column for VentureBeat last March.

Yet another thin film manufacturer has picked up a massive funding raise. SoloPower, based in Milpitas, Calif., has taken almost $200 million to expand its manufacturing capacity, according to this morning’s VentureWire.

Like Miasole, Nanosolar and several others, SoloPower makes thin film CIGS panels, meaning they rely on a specific chemical to convert sunlight to electricity. The funding will go toward a 100 megawatt per year facility also based in the state.

Although the amounts being pushed into thin film right now would make most venture capital investors’ eyes go wide, they’re not that notable in the broader context of the capital needed to build large factories. What’s more important is that there are investors willing to provide capital at all, during what is an economic downturn for the rest of the country.

The worry for many was that growing cleantech companies with good prospects would not be able to tap into enough funding to move past research into commercialization, and eventually to an IPO on the stock markets. But for a number of thin film companies, it appears that a number of investors are willing to step up with substantial amounts.

SoloPower didn’t disclose who the new investors are. The company last took funding in July 2007, drawing $30 million from a set of venture investors. Other recent thin film fundings include Nanosolar’s $300 million raise, Ava Solar with $104 million, and Miasole with a (probable) $200 million funding.

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).