VentureBeat

General Electric seems to be covering its bases when it comes to solar power. The company, which four months ago bought a controlling stake in thin-film solar panel maker PrimeStar Solar, has added concentrating solar to its portfolio with a $2.5 million bet on Soliant Energy, based in Monrovia, Calif.

The two startups are about as different as they come. Whereas thin-film solar, such as PrimeStar makes, is very low efficiency but dirt cheap, Soliant makes panels that focus the sun’s rays on a single point, providing the equivalent of 500 suns’ energy to tiny, high efficiency panels. That approach, predictably enough, costs far more per panel than thin film, although they may be competitive on the cost per watt of electricity.

Each scheme has its advantages, but it’s unclear yet whether thin film, concentrating solar or traditional silicon-based solar photovoltaics will win a majority share of the solar market. Soliant, for its part, has been around longer than some concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) companies. We first covered it in 2006, when it was still called Practical Instruments and had just raised $8 million to help develop its panels.

Nowadays it has plenty of competition, from a slew of companies including GreenVolts, Sunrgi and SolFocus, the last of which recently edged close to $100 million in funding. Soliant’s not quite there yet, but its product is at least completed and has some notable differences to other CPV panels on the market. The company fits a number of lenses and mirrors into a nearly flat array, providing a lightweight setup.

However, like almost all CPV systems, Soliant requires a dual-axis tracking system to keep its panels aimed at the sun, so don’t expect to see the units on home rooftops. Instead, they can be installed on commercial roofs or on the ground. Next year, the company will open its first plant, making 40 megawatts worth of panels annually.

The $2.5 million that GE Energy Financial Services provided is part of a larger $21 million round the Convexa Capital, Rockport Capital Partners, Nth Power, Trinity Ventures and Rincon Venture Partners are also taking part in. Soliant is based in Monrovia, Calif.

Innovalight, a Silicon Valley company that says it has come up with new solar cell with nano-particles of silicon, has raised a large $28 million round of capital and said it plans to open a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility next year.Innovalight is still being very vague on the details of its technology, and it’s very late to the game. There are already more than a dozen other large companies and start-ups that are developing new solar energy modules.

Innovalight’s claim to differentiation is that it won’t use silicon in its costly, inflexible crystalline wafer state. It will reduce the silicon to nanosize crystal dots (see our earlier coverage), so that it can be used as a sort of ink, where it can be painted onto surfaces. At this point, though, being late may not matter as much as getting it right. The market for solar is expected to be huge (the market is predicted by some to more than double to $36 billion by 2010), as long as the price of the product can get low enough to be competitive with competing sources of energy.

The company hopes to take the efficiency properties of silicon and outperform other start-ups companies that are working on flexible, ink technologies based on materials other than silicon, such as CIGS. These companies include Konarka, Nanosolar, Miasole, Solyndra, SoloPower and Heliovolt. Many of these companies have made promises about their technology, but have failed to deliver on their declared time frame. They’ve also been soaking up engineering talent in the sector, making it harder for late companies such as Innovalight to hire the people they need.

It is the Sunnvale, Calif. company’s third round of funding, and it was led by Norway-based investor, Convexa Capital and supported by Scatec AS. Existing investors Apax Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Harris & Harris Group, Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures also participated in this financing. The company, founded in 2002, previously raised $14 million.
CEO Conrad Burke wrote a guest column for VentureBeat in March.

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).