Siva Power Secures further funding for CIGS technology
Funding will allow company to build high capacity co-evaporation source
Siva Power, a California-based solar energy company, has closed a financing round, which along with other recent efforts has raised a total of $10 million in new capital. The funding enables Siva to begin building a key production component and narrow down its site selection for where to establish a cost-competitive manufacturing plant for highly efficient, low-cost CIGS-based solar panels.
The new investment includes converting $3 million in debt financing Siva received in May 2014 from four current investors - Trident Capital, DBL Investors, Medley Partners, and Acero Capital - and the city of Wuxi, China as a new investor. An additional $4 million is being committed by DBL, Medley, and Acero. This funding comes on top of Siva's recently announced $3 million award by the US Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative, bringing Siva's total to $10 million in new capital, sufficient to initiate the next stages of its plan.
The new funding enables Siva to start building what it claims is the world's highest capacity co-evaporation source - a technology that deposits the photovoltaic material onto the solar panel. This will enable Siva to construct the rest of its full-scale production line for a 300MW factory. Siva is considering various locations -with California and other global sites on the short list - for establishing the factory, evaluating criteria including ease-of-manufacturing and favorability towards solar energy.
Siva Power estimates it can achieve a manufacturing cost of $0.40/watt when it begins operating its 300MW line, and less than $0.28/watt within two years, reaching a cost even lower than DOE's goal of $0.50/watt.
Siva also announced that Bulent Basol, a solar expert and pioneer, has joined itsTechnical Advisory Board. Basol has been an internationally recognised pioneer in thin-film PV for more than 30 years, with more than 160 patents and 100 publications. Bulent started his career in 1980 with Monosolar Inc., one of the first solar companies. He later co-founded both ISET and SoloPower, pioneering thin-film solar technologies. He most recently founded EncoreSolar, an integrated CdTe company driving to achieve less than $0.50/watt costs.
"I have developed almost every type of thin-film solar technology over the last 30 years and now know that what Siva is driving at will not only achieve the lowest thin-film costs, but should surpass traditional crystalline silicon as well," Basol said.
