CIS/CIGS/$$$$/Gold Standard
HelioVolt Receives $8 Million from New Enterprise Associates to Develop Fast Thin-Film Solar Technology for Power Buildings
June 20, 2005 01:00 PM US Eastern Timezone
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2005--HelioVolt Corporation, a next-generation solar energy technology company, announced today that it has closed $8 million in Series A venture funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) of Menlo Park, California, one of the industry's premier venture capital firms.
"We are introducing a dramatically more efficient way to manufacture and install CIS, the proven highest-performing solar technology," said Billy J. Stanbery, Ph.D., founder and CEO of HelioVolt and a solar energy pioneer. "We can shorten photovoltaic manufacturing time and thermal budget by a factor of ten to 100. This is the first truly practical technology to enable buildings to produce their own power."
HelioVolt has invented the fastest and most efficient way to manufacture thin film photovoltaic platforms surfaced with Copper Indium Selenide (CIS), the most reliable and best-performing thin film material for generating electricity from sunlight. HelioVolt's FASST(TM) technology can apply CIS coatings to traditional construction materials including steel, architectural glass and roofing, in custom shapes, sizes and tints.
The attractive and durable CIS coating looks much like slate, and can be incorporated into exterior cladding for buildings including metal and polymer roofing, skylights, and curtain walls, creating a new class of PV construction materials that could not be made with silicon. FASST(TM) will enable architects and contractors to use a building's "skin" to self-power it, a practice called "building-integrated photovoltaics" (BIPV) or creating smart "power buildings."
NEA partner Arno Penzias, Ph.D., a Nobel-prize-winning physicist, discovered HelioVolt when he heard Dr. Stanbery speak on solar energy in late 2004. "I've looked at a lot of solar companies and this is the first where I have real confidence in the science," said Penzias. "CIS is the PV gold standard for replacing silicon. BJ Stanbery is the best person in the world to bring this to market in creative new ways."
Another enthusiastic proponent of HelioVolt at NEA, Jimmy Treybig, the founder of Tandem Computers, commented: "The whole energy sector is a tremendous opportunity. We're obviously going to have to replace petroleum with solar energy -- we've all just been waiting for a breakthrough in practicality. Now HelioVolt has made it."[And so has Nanergy...IMHO!!!]
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