Goodbye AVA Solar, hello Abound Solar: CdTe PV company changes name

AVA Solar has a new name--Abound Solar. The cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaics manufacturer says its new brand reflects the "company's commitment to providing an abundance of low-cost solar panels to solar integrators around the globe."

CEO Pascal Noronhas said that the the company is "excited about our evolution from AVA Solar to Abound Solar. Our new brand identity represents a change in the company’s look, as well as our focus. We believe we are well-positioned to address the growing demand for solar power, and we are focused on scaling to create a source of renewable, abundant and universally affordable energy."

The company started building a fully integrated, 200-MW-capacity production facility in Longmont, CO, last spring. The fab is scheduled to start commercial production of 60 × 120-cm TFPV panels in April, according to Abound, which would make it the second operational CdTe volume production facility in the U.S., after First Solar's Perrysburg, OH, site.

Abound's low-cost, high-throughput CdTe module manufacturing technology was developed and incubated at Colorado State University's material engineering labs over the last 15 years. The company says that with its dry, in-line, continuous production flow, the glass enters the process chamber and in less than two hours, a completed panel emerges from the end of the automated line.

The company has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and has received about $150 million of private investment from the Invus Group, Doll Capital Management, and others, with the latest $104 million equity financing round having been completed in August 2008.

Abound says that it has already signed supply contracts with leading global customers and has also applied for a DOE loan guarantee to expand its current manufacturing facility and begin construction of a second, larger plant.