Nanosolar Lands $70M
Greentech Media
Don’t count Nanosolar out of the thin film solar competition just yet.
The firm just closed on another $70 million in VC funding to allow its CIGS thin-film photovoltaic factory to continue to scale and improve.
A release from the company describers the round as “over-subscribed” with funding from existing investors and new investors including OnPoint Technologies, Inc., Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Ohana Holdings.
Nanosolar received a small $20 million sum earlier this year from existing investors along with new investor aeris CAPITAL (Aeris is a Zurich, Switzerland-based family fund. And the interesting piece here is that Erik Oldekop of aeris CAPITAL was a Managing Director at Nanosolar from 2006 to May 2011. It’s a connection that can be interpreted in a variety of ways — he’s likely still a personal shareholder in Nanosolar, but he also knows its dark secrets and angelic potential.)
“We believe solar printing is the future of low-cost harvesting of solar energy,” said Oldekop in a an earlier press release.
Nanosolar prints CIGS inks on aluminum foil in a roll-to-roll process without using high-vacuum manufacturing equipment.
Nanosolar has had some recent personnel shifts. Brian Stone, a VP at Nanosolar, left the firm. Geoff Tate, CEO for about two years, was replaced by Eugenia Corrales. John Rayfield, VP of Worldwide Marketing, also left the firm recently.
Nanosolar has had a history of technical and commercial promises, most recently these relating to cost:
- Below $1.00 per watt factory cost by the end of 2011
- Low $0.80s or high $0.70s per watt by late 2012
- In the $0.60s in 2013
- Below $0.60 per watt in 2014
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