Five Promising Thin Film Solar Startups

By Chris de Morsella on January 12, 2010 2 Comments 3M Co., aluminum foil substrate, Austin, Berlin, CA, cadmium-telluride thin film technology, California, China, CIGS, CIGS-on-Aluminum stack, clean room, Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide, Department of Energy, DOE, electrochemical process, electroplating process, Fremont, Gallium, Germany, HelioVolt, high-vacuum deposition, Homayoun Talieh, Hudson, IEC 61646, IEC 61730, Indium, Kleiner Perkins, Luckenwalde, MiaSolé, molybdenum, nano-scale CIGS ink, Nanosolar, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, photovoltaic, Physical Vapor Deposition, polysilicon crystalline, PV, roll to roll mass production, San Jose, Santa Clara, Selenium, solar cell, solar module, solar panel, solar power, Solopower, Solyndra, Tellurium, Texas, thin film solar, thin film solar startup, TX, UL 1703, Underwriters Laboratory

It is a rough time to be a startup in the Solar Photovoltaic sector. The financial crisis and deep recession has not only dried up capital, but has also hit demand for solar panels, which has lead to a global supply glut and a price collapse. In this very difficult environment startups must compete with much larger established global suppliers that have factories of hundreds of megawatts each, an established customer base and well developed brand names and sales channels. In this post we look at five promising CIGS thin film Solar PV startups based in the US and try to catalog their unique strengths and accomplishments.