Thin-Film Startup Aims to Match First Solar
Santa Clara solar startup MiaSole has ambitious plans for 2010. Plans that include matching industry leader First Solar in production costs this year. First Solar made solar history in 2008 when it broke the $1-per-watt barrier, reaching further down to 85 cents per watt in 2009. Miasole's production costs are still above $1 per watt, but the company is eying better times to come and believe that they can catch First Solar sooner rather than later.
Miasole manufactures thin-film CIGS solar cells and modules, a technology expected to fall sharply in price over the next few years. First Solar's cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar models are currently the cheapest in the business. MiaSole's CIGS solar panels convert 10.5 percent of the solar energy that strikes it into usable electricity, a mark certainly competitive in the thin-film sector. Both companies should benefit from an increased market share for thin-film solar products in that time span as well. Research suggests that the market share for thin film solar cells -- currently at 20 percent -- will double by 2013.
A privately owned startup, MiaSole has raised some $300 million in venture capital funding thus far, not to mention a recently granted $100 million tax credit from the federal government. They employ more than 300 people at present, with plans to expand their manufacturing plant in California to 160-megawatt capacity in 2010, up from the current 60 megawatts.
MiaSole is somewhat of a veteran in the solar industry, at least compared with many of its peers. Founded in 2001, the startup started out strong but struggled for a few years after 2005. In 2007, a new CEO was appointed and the company turned inward to begin researching and developing a new and improved product. Now, MiaSole is selling and shipping products and recording revenues. It is a momentum that they hope to carry on until they match or pass the thin-film solar industry's current bar-setter, First Solar.
Via Reuters
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