News

9 July 2009

 

SolFocus boosts Series C round by $30.6m to $77m

After in January announcing a first close on its Series C funding round of $47m, concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system maker SolFocus Inc of Mountain View, CA, USA has raised a further $30.6m to close the round at a total of $77.6m.

The financing was led by Apex Venture Partners, which focuses on investing in firms in sectors including technology, software, IT infrastructure and telecoms. “The strength of a firm like Apex Venture Partners as the round lead was instrumental in our ability to exceed our fund-raising target,” says SolFocus’ VP of finance Bob Raybuck. “The strong product and market position of the company was also confirmed by the combination of existing and new investors joining the round,” he adds. Follow-on investors include New Enterprise Associates (NEA), which led the firm's A and B rounds, as well as NGEN and Yellowstone Ventures. New investors include Demeter Partners (affiliates of Advanced Equities Inc, which served as financial advisor on the financing).

“Closing a round of investment with more than $77m is no small feat in this challenging fund-raising environment, and a good indication of market expectations for SolFocus in 2009 – the year of CPV commercialization,” says CEO & president Mark Crowley. “The investment will allow SolFocus to align its operations, engineering, and project management with the demands of global manufacturing and deployment,” he adds.

SolFocus’ CPV design uses a system of reflective optics (curved mirrors) to concentrate sunlight 650 times onto gallium arsenide-based solar cells (on germanium substrates) that have high solar energy conversion efficiency (approaching 40%, more than twice that of traditional silicon solar cells).

The new funding builds on a series of commercial milestones for SolFocus. Like its smaller 1000S system, the firm’s second product (the 1100S, launched last November) uses about a thousandth of the active solar cell material compared to traditional silicon-based PV panels, but boosts panel conversion efficiency from 18% to more than 25%. In solar-rich locations, such efficiency can accelerate the trajectory for solar energy to reach cost parity with fossil fuels, says SolFocus. In addition, in May the firm’s 1000P module became the first CPV product to achieve performance, qualification and safety certification to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62108 standard.

The funds will be used to support the rapid manufacturing ramp in completing the firm’s transition from pilot production to full-scale commercialization, expanding from 0.5MW in 2008 to more than 10MW to be shipped this year, and capacity for over 50MW going into 2011. SolFocus is currently undertaking the largest CPV installation in Europe (a 10MW deal, announced in March, with the Samaras Group in Greece). Last November, it signed a $103m (€80m) deal with EMPE Solar to install over 10MW of CPV projects in several sites across southern Spain by the end of 2010. Also, in April SolFocus opened a 15-fold expansion of its glass reflector manufacturing plant in Mesa, AZ (raising annual capacity to 2 million concentrating reflectors, sufficient for 30MW of solar power generation).

“SolFocus has the right mix of innovation and execution to deliver on its promise of low-cost solar energy in high-sun regions around the world,” comments Apex Venture general partner Wayne Boulais (who has been elected to SolFocus’ board of directors). “The challenge for new technology in today's tight capital markets is intense, but we believe that SolFocus has demonstrated its ability to move forward on a deliberate path that will allow the company to meet these challenges.”

See related item:

SolFocus raises $47.5m to commercialize CPVs

Search: SolFocus CPV

Visit: www.solfocus.com