CIGS thin-film start-up Siva Power has recently raised a total of US$10 million to fund its build of what it claims is the world's highest capacity co-evaporation source, the key tool for its claimed ultra-low cost CIGS modules.
Siva Power was recently awarded US$3 million in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative to further develop its co-evaporation tool.
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The start-up is hoping that the construction and demonstration of the co-evaporation tool is the precursor to building its first 300MW CIGS module plant. Siva said that site selection analysis would be done in the US as well as overseas.
Interestingly, one of the new backers in the latest funding round was said to be the City of Wuxi, China and home to former major PV manufacturer Wuxi Suntech, now owned by Shunfeng. This is the first time the City of Wuxi has invested in Siva.
The new investment round however includes converting US$3 million in debt financing the company received in May 2014, via four existing investors, Trident Capital, DBL Investors, Medley Partners, and Acero Capital. An additional US$4 million in the round came from DBL, Medley and Acero.
Siva Power is basing the viability of it CIGS technology on achieving a manufacturing cost of US$0.40/Watt on the initial ramp of a single 300MW line, and less than US$0.28/Watt within two years, reaching a production cost below DOE's goal of US$0.50/Watt, deemed to necessary for US manufacturing competiveness.
Siva also said that it had boosted its technical advisory panel with the inclusion of Dr. Bulent Basol, which already includes, Dr. Charlie Gay, Dr. Rommel Noufi, Mr. John Benner, and Dr. Markus Beck.
Basol founded both ISET and SoloPower.