Miasolé Raises $50 million, Has Started Production

Thin-film solar-cell maker Miasole, the Santa Clara, CA, USA start-up which makes CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenium) solar cells, has raised $50 million more in venture capital in a fourth round of financing.

According to Venture Beat, the company says it has started shipping its cells to its first two customers, . . . both in China. The company assembles its solar modules in Shanghai.

Another Venture Beat article reported:

Miasolé is one of a handful of players producing solar technology based on CIGS materials. These companies, which include Nanosolar, HelioVolt and Konarka (and Honda) are all racing to be first to market. Nanosolar made waves in June, when it announced that it would build the world's largest solar cell factory.

In an interview with VentureWire in May, [Chief Executive David] Pearce said Miasolé was in the process of building a production facility with 50 megawatts of capacity….So far, Miasolé has raised at least $58 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Firelake Strategic Technology Fund, Garage Technology Ventures and Nippon Kouatsu Electric Co. Pearce would not comment on new investors in the round.

In March DOE announced that it had funded Miasole, subject to negotiations. DOE funding for the first year of the project is expected to be $5,800,000, with approximately $20,000,000 available over three years if the team meets its goals. With the addition of the most recent $50 million this brings the total raised by Miasole to over $100 million, I don't know whether this is included in the $58 million total above.

From Miasole's web site:

Miasolé manufactures a thin-film photovoltaic cell. It consists of an ultra-thin layer of photoactive material (copper indium gallium diselenide, or CIGS) on a stainless steel foil only 50 microns thick. It can easily be used in PV modules or incorporated into building materials like membrane roofing.

CIGS is a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (Cu(In,Ga)Se2). When combined in the proper ratios, these materials form a semiconductor that can be applied as a thin film to create photovoltaic cells on many carrier substrates. The CIGS ("absorber") layer absorbs photons, the first step in the transformation of solar energy to electricity.

Miasolé differentiates itself by bringing high-volume, thin-film manufacturing technology to the CIGS solar industry. In a broad sense, Miasolé is simply depositing a new set of thin films using technology its team has proven in the hard disk industry. Rather than applying magnetic films, Miasolé is using the same technology to deposit CIGS semiconductor films on a large scale.

Each Miasolé production run delivers square miles of product thanks to our patented high-throughput manufacturing process. We are also immune to the silicon shortages plaguing the rest of the industry because we don't use silicon. These two factors, together with the option of captive manufacturing for large customers, eliminates any worries about getting product when you need it.

Advantages over Crystalline Silicon
CIGS solar cells offer several advantages over crystalline silicon solar cells. In particular, CIGS cells are:

• Less expensive per Watt
• More efficient in low-angle and low-light conditions
• Extremely lightweight
• Flexible enough to conform to small-radius curves

Thanks for the tip from Rob Day of cleantechmedia: blogs

Comments

[bigTom]

Would this stuff be applicable for automotive? The high cost of generating electricty from liquid fueled engines, for HEV, or PHEV vehicles would be a good match for supplimentation with some sort of PV
power.

[Nucbuddy]

bigTom wrote: The high cost of generating electricty from liquid fueled engines, for HEV, or PHEV vehicles would be a good match for supplimentation with some sort of PV power.

A $500 low-emission (LEV-rated) gasoline-powered engine (e.g. the current base-model Toyota Corolla engine) can produce ~100-kilowatts of power. How much would a 100-kilowatt solar panel on the roof of a car cost? Please show your math.

[Carl Hage]

In theory, the Miasole PV films could be deposited on car roofs, etc., but it wouldn't provide much area, so not enough charge unless you only drive a couple of miles (then you may as well walk).

However, a solar carport of 3x5 meters would generate enough electricity on average to power an electric car. (Assuming 15% efficiency, 15,000/yr miles and about .2kWh/mi).

The hope is that the new technology will be so cheap that it would be cost effective even for flat roofs or slopes not optimally aligned. Supposedly, PV panels could produce electricity cheaper than alternatives even without subsidies. However, installation costs now represent a large portion of the PV electric costs (about half), so these costs need to come down as well.

[bigTom]

Nucbuddy, it is assumed that PV is mainly for charging while parked in the sun. Allowing for a few milesper day before needing to start burning gas. The stuff has to be pretty cheap to make the modest improvement in average usage miles/gallon worth it. It would need to be the automotive equivalent of building integrated photovoltaics, i.e.
an integral part of the roof/hood, installation costs as an aftermarket product would be too great.

technofossil numbers seem roughly in the ballpark, you may get a mile or two per hour of sunlight. Presumably these vehicles would usually be plugged in at night, so these miles would be used in the return commute.

[greg]

Just imagine everybody fighting over the sunny spots in the parking lot and hoping somebody in a big van doesn't shade his 2 miles worth to get back home.
Hey lady, your shading my panels!

[jworth]

Interesting article. Because I work at HelioVolt, I am hoping that we will be first to market. However, I am always pleased to see when thin-film CIGS advances. I think the competition is healthy and there will be enough market share for everyone that is currently pursuing that path. Getting to market quickly will be critical though because once the model is proven, all of the big boys will come flooding in. The current players need to capitalize, monetize and lock the market down quickly.

[Clee]

First CIGS to market? Seems to me Honda's already done it. They've been selling CIGS modules since June, according to
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/06/honda_soltec_be.html
http://world.honda.com/news/2007/c070612HondaSoltec/

[mds]

Honda links both say "starting this fall" and Honda has not announced they are shipping yet, to my knowledge. They may be a close second though.
This CIGS product will likely be cheaper to produce than Si PV. They should not have a problem with profitable sales. BIPV will be important to bring down installation costs and remain competitive in the longer term.

[Clee]

I interpreted that to say that they are shipping limited production now and will ramp up to full production in the fall. If they weren't shipping, I would have thought the articles would say they were "taking orders for" the modules rather than saying they were actually selling them through distributors. But maybe something was lost in translation.

[Dr. Livsy]

It's nice article! Thanks, good info!

[Clee]

Well, whether or not we can verify if Honda has started shipping thin film PV panels, Nanosolar has!
http://earth2tech.com/2007/12/19/heliovolts-factory-lands-in-austin/
And they claim they can sell panels profitably at $0.99/W
http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/2007/12/18/nanosolar-ships-first-panels/

[Clee]

I think they're CIGS

[Cyril R.]

Heh. Their panel # 2 has a $ 12,500 bid at this moment! Not quite buck-a-Watt. Let's hope the real product won't sell for the price of this collectable charity panel :)

It looks like your spam filter isn't working very well Jim.

[Danzig]

Jim Fraser:
These "advertising posts" can be real blog killers.

I assume you are working on some sort of filter/editor to address the issue?

[Clee]

The Venture Beat article says:
Miasolé is one of a handful of players producing solar technology based on CIGS materials. These companies, which include Nanosolar, HelioVolt and Konarka (and Honda) are all racing to be first to market.

Now I find out that Global Solar Energy has been producing CIGS cells since 2004, over 3 years ago.
http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsNATE49.htm

Were all these mentioned companies racing to be second to market?