heliovolt

AUSTIN, Texas--"It's like a great big grilled cheese sandwich machine."

That's how solar power company HelioVolt's vice president of marketing and sales, John Langdon, describes the company's pilot line for CIGS thin-film photovoltaics, a technology that a raft of companies are betting on to lower the cost of solar energy.

"You have the Gruyere cheese on one side and the Swiss cheese on the other; we make them react with one another and stick on the bread," Langdon continued when CNET News.com visited the company's headquarters in Austin.

Replace … Read more

Solar upstart HelioVolt on Monday will announce that it has reached 12.2 percent efficiency with its CIGS solar cells, setting another mark in the race against competitors and silicon.

Company CEO BJ Stanbery will present a paper at the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference where he will disclose the efficiency threshold which HelioVolt has reached in its labs. The well-financed company expects it can go much further in converting light to electricity.

More significant than the actual number is the fact that HelioVolt hit 12 percent efficiency with its manufacturing process, which it says can turn out a cell in … Read more

Solar company HelioVolt and Architectural Glass & Aluminum on Tuesday announced a partnership to produce glass windows capable of generating electricity.

HelioVolt is one of several new solar manufacturers using different materials to produce thin-film solar cells.

The company intends to make solar cells for rooftop panels and later get into building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), where cells are embedded onto roof shingles, blinds, awnings, or other building components.

The deal with Architectural Glass & Aluminum calls for the companies to design solar-enabled curtain walls, the glass facades on the outside of buildings, or architectural glass in the interior of buildings.

Citing … Read more

Renewable energy provider EDF Energies Nouvelles has plunked $50 million into Nanosolar and will get access to output from Nanosolar's factories in 2009.

Nanosolar specializes in copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar cells. CIGS cells aren't as efficient as silicon solar cells, but they cost less and can be integrated into building materials. Nanosolar's cells can be printed on thin, flexible sheets of metal.

The company became one of the first to start producing CIGS commercially when it started cranking out production in December. Some other competitors have had to delay production. Right now, only Global Solar in Arizona also … Read more

CIGS looks like it could pay off.

Nanosolar and Solyndra, which both develop copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar cells, are looking at raising additional funds, according to sources, and both companies have put large valuations on themselves.

According to sources, Nanosolar is telling investors it will have a valuation, after another round of funds, of around $2 billion. Solyndra says it is worth $1 billion. Not bad for companies with combined current revenues at the moment that probably would have difficulty rivaling the take of a reasonably located convenience store. Nanosolar just started shipping a few solar cells to customers at the … Read more

HelioVolt, which plans on producing thin film solar panels made from copper indium gallium and selenide (CIGS), will build a 20-megawatt factory in Austin, Texas, that will start popping out panels in 2008.

The factory will employ about 150 people. The company then hopes to move into mass manufacturing by the first quarter of 2009 as well as expand production capacity.

CIGS solar panels aren't as efficient at converting sunlight into electricity as silicon solar panels, but advocates say that they cost far less to produce. CIGS solar panels can also be placed on glass or polymer sheets. Ideally, … Read more

HelioVolt, which specializes in copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, has raised an additional $24 million, bringing the total injected into the company to more than $100 million. The latest investors include Sequel Venture Partners, Noventi Ventures and Passport Capital.

CIGS solar cells are not as efficient as crystalline silicon solar cells, the dominant type of cell on the market. HelioVolt's first cells will likely have an efficiency rating of 10 percent to 12 percent, meaning that they can convert 10 percent to 12 percent of the sunlight that strikes them into electricity. Commercially available silicon solar cells … Read more