Solaria Corp., a Fremont, Calif.-based solar technology company, announced that it had sealed the deal on $22 million in series B financing. The funding round includes investments from venture capital firms Sigma Partners and NGEN Partners; Q-Cells AG, an independent manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar cells; and Moser Baer, India's largest manufacturer of removable optical storage media. Solaria claims that its technology platform allows the solar industry to produce two to three times the number of photovoltaic (PV) modules from the same amount of silicon material used in today's conventional modules.
"This infusion of capital will help us to achieve Solaria's goal of enabling low-cost, high efficiency PV modules and systems for our customers," Solaria's CEO, Suvi Sharma said in a statement. "We are currently working with select commercialization partners and are on schedule to enter high-volume production in 2007."
Solaria said its new form of low-concentration solar PV technology is immensely scalable. By modifying equipment used in the mass fabrication of computer chips and other semiconductor-based products, Solaria's technology can enable the acceleration of solar PV module production to meet the rapidly increasing worldwide demand for solar power.
