Miasolé
Encyclopedia
MiaSolé is a solar energy company developing Copper indium gallium selenide
(CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic products. MiaSolé's manufacturing process lays CIGS on a flexible stainless steel substrate. MiaSolé produces all layers of photovoltaic material in a continuous sputtering
process.
Based in Santa Clara, California
, the company is focused on large-scale commercial and utility projects, and is looking to incorporate its flexible stainless steel substrate. MiaSolé has customers in five countries, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and the United States.
Industry research expects the market for solar panels that use thin-film technology instead of traditional silicon-based materials to more than double by 2013. Thin-film now represents 20% of the solar market.
To date, the company has raised $350 million in investment from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and VantagePoint Venture Partners
.
In December 2006, the company's CEO, Dave Pearce, announced that 50MW of manufacturing capacity as well as an imminent IPO but failed to deliver on those milestones. Pearce was replaced in September 2007 and has since moved onto startup Nuvosun. Semiconductor equipment executive Joseph Laia was brought in as CEO to move the company from R&D stage into volume production. Under Laia, MiaSolé worked on re-engineering the manufacturing process to improve efficiency and cost. In 2010, the company plans to expand capacity to 140 megawatts from about 60 megawatts. The company projects it will have shipped 20 to 30 megawatts of capacity by December 2010.
Laia spent much of his career figuring out how to deposit chemicals very carefully on substrates, first at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and later at semiconductor machinery companies Novellus and KLA-Tencor. He brought former KLA-Tencor colleague, Paul Shufflebotham, into MiaSolé specifically to address the key process of sputtering
.
Currently, MiaSole has a manufacturing factory in California and plans to open a second, larger factory in the United States.
and raised a further $35 million in October 2006.
The company raised $50 million in a fourth round of financing in September 2007, bringing total financing to $100 million.
MiaSolé currently has roughly $350 million in investment from investors from VantagePoint Venture Partners,Kleiner Perkins, Garage Technology Ventures and Firelake Capital Management. In addition, the company received about $100 million federal tax credit from the United States Department of Energy.
and semiconductor industries.
In this unique process, MiaSolé lays Copper indium gallium selenide
(CIGS), on a flexible stainless steel substrate entirely through a continuous sputtering
process.
Sputtering is used in volume thin-film production, and is used by high volume manufacturing companies in the disk drive and architectural glass industries. Sputtering deposits a thin film of material onto a surface in a vacuum. MiaSolé claims it uses a continuous desposition process in one tool to deposit all layers of the CIGS solar cell on a lightweight stainless steel substrate.
CIGS is among the most efficient solar cell materials with a maximum solar conversion efficiency of 20.2% in the laboratory – better than the best lab cells using amorphous silicon or cadmium telluride, but manufacturing it in volume has been a problem. Despite these difficulties, CIGS are expected to surpass cadmium telluride, used by companies like First Solar, in efficiency. Thin-film technology is inherently less expensive than market leading crystalline silicon because of the cost of the silicon substrate.
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory
has since independently verified two 10% Miasolé CIGS modules.] MiaSolé’s 100 and 107 watt CIGS thin film solar modules were certified to UL 1703 and IEC 61646 and 61730 standards on October 30, 2009 – the first CIGS thin film module to be simultaneously certified by UL to the three most critical certification standards. MiaSolé panels average 10.2% and 10.5% efficiency.
Copper indium gallium selenide
Copper indium gallium selenide is a I-III-VI2 semiconductor material composed of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. The material is a solid solution of copper indium selenide and copper gallium selenide...
(CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic products. MiaSolé's manufacturing process lays CIGS on a flexible stainless steel substrate. MiaSolé produces all layers of photovoltaic material in a continuous sputtering
Sputtering
Sputtering is a process whereby atoms are ejected from a solid target material due to bombardment of the target by energetic particles. It is commonly used for thin-film deposition, etching and analytical techniques .-Physics of sputtering:...
process.
Based in Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
, the company is focused on large-scale commercial and utility projects, and is looking to incorporate its flexible stainless steel substrate. MiaSolé has customers in five countries, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and the United States.
Industry research expects the market for solar panels that use thin-film technology instead of traditional silicon-based materials to more than double by 2013. Thin-film now represents 20% of the solar market.
To date, the company has raised $350 million in investment from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and VantagePoint Venture Partners
VantagePoint Venture Partners
VantagePoint Capital Partners is a firm with investments in the cleantech, information technology and healthcare sectors.Founded in 1996, by Alan E. Salzman and Jim Marver, the firm has raised over $4 billion with more than $1 billion dedicated specifically to CleanTech...
.
Company history
MiaSolé was founded by veterans of the hard disk industry who leveraged their expertise in hard disk manufacturing to introduce new manufacturing processes into the thin-film solar industry.In December 2006, the company's CEO, Dave Pearce, announced that 50MW of manufacturing capacity as well as an imminent IPO but failed to deliver on those milestones. Pearce was replaced in September 2007 and has since moved onto startup Nuvosun. Semiconductor equipment executive Joseph Laia was brought in as CEO to move the company from R&D stage into volume production. Under Laia, MiaSolé worked on re-engineering the manufacturing process to improve efficiency and cost. In 2010, the company plans to expand capacity to 140 megawatts from about 60 megawatts. The company projects it will have shipped 20 to 30 megawatts of capacity by December 2010.
Laia spent much of his career figuring out how to deposit chemicals very carefully on substrates, first at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and later at semiconductor machinery companies Novellus and KLA-Tencor. He brought former KLA-Tencor colleague, Paul Shufflebotham, into MiaSolé specifically to address the key process of sputtering
Sputtering
Sputtering is a process whereby atoms are ejected from a solid target material due to bombardment of the target by energetic particles. It is commonly used for thin-film deposition, etching and analytical techniques .-Physics of sputtering:...
.
Currently, MiaSole has a manufacturing factory in California and plans to open a second, larger factory in the United States.
Investment History
MiaSolé initial raise was in 2004 and led by VantagePoint Venture Partners. The B round raised $16 million in venture capital investment in June 2005, in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,and raised a further $35 million in October 2006.
The company raised $50 million in a fourth round of financing in September 2007, bringing total financing to $100 million.
MiaSolé currently has roughly $350 million in investment from investors from VantagePoint Venture Partners,Kleiner Perkins, Garage Technology Ventures and Firelake Capital Management. In addition, the company received about $100 million federal tax credit from the United States Department of Energy.
Technology
Miasolé's development of a new production process leverages its executives’ experience in the hard diskHard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
and semiconductor industries.
In this unique process, MiaSolé lays Copper indium gallium selenide
Copper indium gallium selenide
Copper indium gallium selenide is a I-III-VI2 semiconductor material composed of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. The material is a solid solution of copper indium selenide and copper gallium selenide...
(CIGS), on a flexible stainless steel substrate entirely through a continuous sputtering
Sputtering
Sputtering is a process whereby atoms are ejected from a solid target material due to bombardment of the target by energetic particles. It is commonly used for thin-film deposition, etching and analytical techniques .-Physics of sputtering:...
process.
Sputtering is used in volume thin-film production, and is used by high volume manufacturing companies in the disk drive and architectural glass industries. Sputtering deposits a thin film of material onto a surface in a vacuum. MiaSolé claims it uses a continuous desposition process in one tool to deposit all layers of the CIGS solar cell on a lightweight stainless steel substrate.
CIGS is among the most efficient solar cell materials with a maximum solar conversion efficiency of 20.2% in the laboratory – better than the best lab cells using amorphous silicon or cadmium telluride, but manufacturing it in volume has been a problem. Despite these difficulties, CIGS are expected to surpass cadmium telluride, used by companies like First Solar, in efficiency. Thin-film technology is inherently less expensive than market leading crystalline silicon because of the cost of the silicon substrate.
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory , located in Golden, Colorado, is the United States' primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility; it is funded through...
has since independently verified two 10% Miasolé CIGS modules.] MiaSolé’s 100 and 107 watt CIGS thin film solar modules were certified to UL 1703 and IEC 61646 and 61730 standards on October 30, 2009 – the first CIGS thin film module to be simultaneously certified by UL to the three most critical certification standards. MiaSolé panels average 10.2% and 10.5% efficiency.