SoloPower Raises $10M for Flexible CIGS
Greentech Media
SoloPower, a manufacturer of CIGS-based flexible thin-film solar panels, raised a bit more debt and equity in its series E-3 round with an SEC filing of $10.8 million. This would appear to be an extension of the recently filed $7.1 million E-3 round in May. In other SoloPower news, the firm just added Paolo Pietrogrande to its board. Pietrogrande is chairman of Element Power Solar, a solar project developer with 77 megawatts in operation and 2,800 megawatts in its pipeline.
SoloPower’s existing investors include Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Crosslink Capital, Convexa, and Firsthand. The solar startup is also the recipient of a $197 million DOE loan guarantee issued in August of last year for its new Oregon factory.
Corporate greentech recipients of DOE loans in the manufacturing sector such as Solyndra, Abound Solar, Fisker Automotive, and Beacon Power have met their share of challenges, though Tesla Motors, also a DOE loan recipient, might buck that trend. Abound will be declaring bankruptcy this week and its failure is indicative of the difficulty of competing against Chinese crystalline silicon solar with U.S.-based manufacturing, a challenge also faced by SoloPower.
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