California rooftop solar manufacturer Solyndra, Inc. has filed for an IPO with the SEC under the ticker "SOLY." The company hopes to raise up to $300 million.
Headquartered in Fremont, CA, Solyndra designs and manufactures PV systems for the commercial rooftop market that employ innovative cylindrical modules and thin film technology.
Instead of conventional flat solar panels, Solyndra uses a series of solar-cell cylindrical tubes that lie side by side inside an aluminum frame. The design allows solar cells to capture diffused and reflected light and shaves labor time and costs, according to the company.
Solyndra uses CIGS solar cells made from copper, indium, gallium and selenium, which could offer higher conversion efficiency than cadmium-telluride and amorphous-silicon. Most of the silicon cells in panels today use crystalline silicon, which has historically been much more expensive.
Currently, Solyndra’s panels have a conversion efficiency of 11-14% – the company hasn’t disclosed its cost per watt – the all important cost factor investors look for in solar companies these days.
Solyndra, Inc. recently began construction of its second solar panel manufacturing plant in Fremont, for which the company received the first loan guarantee offered by the Department of Energy for renewable energy under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The facility will have an annual capacity of 500 megawatts (MW)
The new facility will help Solyndra fulfill its backlog of over $2 billion, impressive for a company that began commercialization in July 2008.
Solyndra reported a net loss of $119.8 million in the first nine months of 2009 on $58.8 million in revenue, up from up from $6 million revenue in 2008.
The company has raised $970 million in venture capital and has about $500 million in debt.
There are few publicly traded thin-film solar companies. First Solar (FSLR) is the largest, of course, and Ascent Solar (ASTI), which puts CIGS thin films on plastic, went public in 2006.
In related news…
If the Solyndra IPO is any indication, green technology companies could see a little more investor interest in 2010. Read Reuters analysis at the link below.
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