Solopower yesterday said that it conditional commitment of U.S. Department of energy for $197.000.000 to build guarantee to a factory in Oregon.
The company plans to build a plant in Wilsonville, Oregon, to begin in the second quarter of this year. Once in operation, it will be able turn out 400 megawatts worth of solar cells per year.
The move provides the financial resources to expand on a smaller demonstration facility in San Jose San Jose, California-based Solopower. The company has a loan and get tax credits from the State of Oregon.
The company provides flexible solar panels with thin-film solar cells from a combination of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS). Plate, rigid covered rather than the traditional glass makes it thin strips, which are designed for quick installation on the corporate roofs.
It is the third thin film solar company an DOE get guarantee, a program designed to relatively low-cost financing of companies that offer to market new technologies. Colorado-based abound solar, which cadmium telluride thin-film panels, received $400 million in a DOE loan as part of the $510.000.000 in funding in December last year.
In an interview earlier this year, DOE loan guarantee said Managing Director Jonathan silver, thin-film solar cells is a technology with the US technology companies have the ability to displace global competitors, especially low-cost Chinese suppliers with traditional polycrystalline silicon solar cells.
The guarantee program that could again as part of the budget cuts are scaled, must deliver solar still a clear winner in the. The first recipient of a DOE was loans Solyndra, makes a specialized just for corporate roofs but, like all solar companies, competition is running costs worldwide.