Sulfurcell, a maker of CIGS/CIGSe type thin-film solar modules, announced it has secured EUR 18.8 million (US$25 million) in equity funding from Intel Capital and others for the expansion and market introduction of its second generation technology.
Sulfurecell says CIGSe is a promising new technology for PV modules being able to deliver modules with the same performance as conventional modules at half the cost.
The investment will pay for additional CIGSe equipment and ongoing
R&D work targeting 14% efficiency within the next 12 to 18 months.
The company recently announced that it has reached 12.6% efficiency in
the full-size modules that it manufactures.
The company, which shipped its first modules to customers in 2005, recently completed the ramp-up of a new 35 megawatts (MW) production facility.
The financing round was led by Intel Capital, the global investment arm of Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC). Intel was joined by a group of leading European and US clean tech investors who gave a EUR 85 million equity funding to Sulfurcell in July 2008–Climate Change Capital Private Equity (London), Bankinvest Group (Copenhagen), Zouk Ventures (London), Masdar Clean Tech Investments (New York) and Demeter (Paris).
In addition, Sulfurcell’s long-term investors who supported the company since the first financing round in 2002 contributed substantially and were led by Vattenfall Europe (Berlin) and GdF Suez (Berlin/Paris).
In 2001, Sulfurcell was founded as a spin-off from the Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Energy, previously known as the Hahn-Meitner Institute. The company’s 250 employees develop, manufacture and sell both Sulfur-based CIGS and Selenium-based CIGSe modules and solutions.
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