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- 2005-11-19
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OrionSolar Shines an Extra $1M
Israeli energy firm scores second round of funding from 21Ventures after developing low-cost solar cell.
Israeli solar energy firm OrionSolar PhotoVoltaics snagged an extra $1 million in a second round of
funding Tuesday and said it had developed an advanced solar energy cell that will reduce the costs of
producing solar electricity.
The Jerusalem-based company received the funds from 21Ventures, a VC firm based in New York City
that also provided OrionSolar’s initial $300,000-round of funding four months ago.
The company was also funded by a private incubator group called Incentive based in Ariel, Israel for
about a year and a half. It received about $500,000 from that group, according to David Anthony,
managing partner of 21Ventures.
OrionSolar believes its dye cell photovoltaic technology can decrease the cost of solar energy to about
$0.70 per peak watt, compared to the about $6 to $9 per peak watt of energy generated by
traditional silicon-based photovoltaic cells.
The company also said its cells are lighter and more flexible than traditional solar cells, so they can be
more easily mounted on top of homes and commercial buildings, and even on top of buses built to
run on hybrid forms of energy.
Mr. Anthony expects the technology will be ready for market at the beginning of next year.
OrionSolar is aiming for two types of customers.
The primary one is in emerging markets such as India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
OrionSolar would license its manufacturing line to other companies to provide the solar cells to homes
and businesses that are far away from the electrical grid.
The electricity would replace the energy created by diesel generators, which generate fuel that is
comparatively pricy and polluting.
“Diesel fuel is very expensive and also very dirty,” said Mr. Anthony. “We don’t need subsidies to make
money. The payback is good enough for the customer in these markets.”
The other type of market is do-it-yourselfers. Customers would be able to buy the cells at a retailer
like Home Depot or Lowes, take them home, and set them up on top of their home or business.
Funding the Gap
21Ventures primarily invests in businesses in Israel, the New York area, and southern California.
Among its portfolio companies are Juice Wireless, VoIP Logic, and the Daily Jolt.
“We’re sort of post-angel, pre-VC,” said Mr. Anthony. “The gap we see in the marketplace is
companies trying to raise half a million to a million and a half. That’s the hardest market to find.”
His firm generally provides funding at that range, and sometimes comes in as high as $4 million to
$5 million.
He approached OrionSolar about six months ago while the company was still in the incubation phase.
“They had a lot of people coming after them, but at some point they believed our model was
beneficial to them,” said Mr. Anthony.
21Ventures has a seat on the board. OrionSolar also has a science advisory board that includes
scientists from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science and Bar Ilan University.
The university is an equity holder in the company and licenses some of its technology to OrionSolar.
However, OrionSolar also owns some of its own intellectual property on the solar cell technology,
which it has been developing for about two years, according to Mr. Anthony.
To be sure, the company has competition in the solar energy industry, which has been growing
rapidly as the price of oil increases. The industry is expected to grow from $12 billion in worldwide
revenue last year to over $16 billion this year and $40 billion in 2010, according to projections from
CLSA Asia-Pacific.
Last month, a company called SolFocus said it was partnering with the Palo Alto Research Center on
photovoltaic technology that it too said would reduce prices (see Solar May Get Cheaper).
SolFocus estimates that the current price of such cells is $7 per watt (estimates vary depending on
the source) and it aims to reduce that price to $2.40 per watt.
Mr. Anthony himself sees competition from Konarka Technologies, Nanosolar, and Nanosys.
But he believes OrionSolar’s solar cells are cheaper than the competition’s, and that it will be able to
reduce the cost of solar energy to under $1 per watt.
[ 本帖最后由 the_top 于 2006-3-30 11:22 编辑 ] |
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发表于 2006-3-29 11:39
