Suniva closes a whopping $75M Series C round

Atlanta, Ga.-based solar cell manufacturer Suniva said today it raised a $75 million Series C round led by new investor Warburg Pincus.

Suniva produces monocrystalline silicon solar cells with energy conversion efficiencies of more than 18 percent using a low-cost, high throughput manufacturing line. The Series C brings Suniva to about $130 million raised since it was founded in 2006 to commercialize technology licensed from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Also participating in the Series C were Apex Venture Partners and returning investors New Enterprise Associates, HIG Ventures and Advanced Equities. The company raised $55.5 million in its first two rounds (see More solar heads to market). Previous investors include Goldman Sachs unit Cogentrix Energy, H.I.G. Ventures and Quercus Investments.

Suniva CEO John Baumstark said the company plans to use the funds to continue to break into U.S. and global markets.

Suniva says its thin solar cells reduce the need for expensive silicon. The company says its process also reduces the time and cost to commercialize new solar technology by developing its designs in incremental stages. Last year, the company said its design team developed several silicon solar cells with more than 20-percent conversion efficiencies using a patented combination of simple cell designs and screen printing technologies for cells less than 100 microns thick (see Cleantech industry in the U.S. South emerging from stealth).

“Most solar is undifferentiated,” said Chansoo Joung, a managing director at Warburg Pincus, in a news release about the funding. “That’s not the case with Suniva. Their cell design and roadmap for commercialization is extremely compelling and represents a unique value proposition for customers.”

The company signed two solar supply deals worth nearly $1 billion in August of 2008. The $480 million deal with India's Titan Energy runs through 2013 (see Suniva signs $480 million deal with India's Titan Energy), while Suniva plans to supply $500 million in solar cells through 2012 to Germany's Solon (see Suniva, Solon in $500M supply deal).

Earlier that year, Suniva signed a long-term deal to buy $300 million in moncrystalline solar wafers over five years from Norway's Renewable Energy Corp., or REC.

Suniva launched production on a 32-MW-peak manufacturing line in late 2008 and plans to complete installation on its second line this summer, expected to have a peak production capacity of 64 MW. The company has plans for a third line to bring it to 175 MW of production capacity.

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