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ArcelorMittal, one of the planet's major steelmakers and materials/mining companies, is not the first (or second or third) company that comes to mind when one thinks about clean technology development. But the Luxembourg-based corporation has launched two new VC funds, one in clean tech and the other in the carbon credits area. The first renewable energy start-up to benefit from the fresh source of cash? Copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaics contender, Miasole, to the tune of a $20 million investment.

VC firms working with ArcelorMittal include Bessemer as well as Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, which have already ponied up millions for Miasole, so the new infusion represents renewed confidence in the CIGS company. Rumblings of more funding for Miasole surfaced last week, with VentureWire reporting numbers well north of the $20 million now confirmed, perhaps as much as $220 million.

Considering the intermittent rough patches that the Santa Clara-based company has gone through over the past year or so--including parting ways with former CEO David Pearce, laying off dozens of employees, missing production targets, and losing a DOE contract--the multimillion-dollar lifeline suggests that current CEO Joe Laia (who was brought in late last summer) and his team have been righting Miasole's corporate ship, pushing its proprietary roll-to-roll on stainless-steel foil, multisource CIGS sputtering process ever closer to commercial (volume?) production status.

In an interview with Greentech Media last month, Laia was asked when Miasole expects to provide what the reporter called "an alternative to First Solar panels." "We think we can scale pretty quickly," he replied. "We'll start in 2009, bring the factory on and start shipping. Probably by 2010, people will say, 'The Miasole guys can do it,' or they will say, 'The Miasole guys can't do it." Like most of the CIGS companies, 2009 looms as the critical make-it-or-break-it year for getting the company's manufacturing act together.

If the latest investment in Miasole turns out to be the first piece of a new slew of funding for the firm, and the numbers do reach into the $200 million range (and considering the initial investment of nearly $100 million, including $50 million in Series D monies last September), then it would become the biggest recipient of venture funding of any solar company to date.

Not bad for an outfit that some PV sector watchers had given up for dead, or at least comatose.