ATEL Ventures provides $3 million capital credit line to SolFocus

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: ATEL Ventures, a provider of secured financing to emerging growth companies, has provided $3 million in equipment financing to SolFocus, a developer of Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) systems. The equipment financing will be used for the company’s high-volume manufacturing.

“SolFocus is in full-scale commercialization of its solar systems in the US, Australia and Europe,” said Steven Rea, Executive Vice President, ATEL Ventures. “We’re pleased to provide SolFocus with this equipment financing to help them scale through this positive and fast-paced phase of growth.”

SolFocus CPV technology employs a system of patented reflective optics to concentrate sunlight 650 times onto small, highly efficient solar cells. The SolFocus SF-1100S system uses approximately 1/1,000th of the active, expensive solar cell material compared to traditional photovoltaic panels.

In addition, the cells utilized in SolFocus CPV systems have over twice the efficiency of traditional silicon photovoltaic cells. SolFocus also offers environmental benefits including next-to-no water usage, a small land footprint with dual use potential, and no permanent shadowing or wildlife corridor disruption.

Additionally, SolFocus CPV provides the shortest energy payback and lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of any solar technology. In solar-rich regions like the southwest US, the SolFocus CPV technology yields significantly more energy than other technologies with an extremely light environmental footprint.

“We have had our systems deployed in Spain since 2008. Since that time SolFocus has moved from R&D into full-scale commercialization,” explained SolFocus CEO and president Mark Crowley.

“We are now nearing completion on a 1MW installation in the high desert of Southern California which is the largest CPV installation in North America, marking a major milestone for advanced solar technology deployment. ATEL’s financing will support the ongoing scaling of our manufacturing operations.”

Headquartered in Mountain View, California and Madrid, Spain, SolFocus is venture-backed by New Enterprise Associates and Apex Ventures.