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Suniva Inc., a manufacturer of high value crystalline silicon solar cells, recently announced the completion of its second round of financing for $50 million. The round was co–led by returning investor, New Enterprise Associates, and Advanced Equities, Inc. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. joined the round via its wholly-owned subsidiary Cogentrix Energy, Inc., a leading independent power producer. HIG Ventures, an existing investor, and Quercus Investments participated as well. The funds will be used for Suniva’s new manufacturing facility near Atlanta.

“The innovative and proprietary technology and know-how that Suniva has gained from its founder, Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi and Georgia Tech’s University Center for Excellence in Photovoltaics (UCEP) over the past 15 years of research and development is astounding and unique in the industry,” said Harry Weller, partner at New Enterprise Associates. “Having an IEEE Cherry award winner who is one of the world’s top scientists in solar power technology and the superb executive team of leading industry veterans, which has joined him will enable Suniva to take silicon-based solar power to the ultimate goal of mass adoption.”

Utilizing its exclusive license to patents and intellectual property developed at UCEP, Suniva is redefining the manufacturing processes for high-efficiency solar cells, driving down the cost of photovoltaic (PV) ownership to meet the costs of conventional grid power. A meaningful reduction in raw materials consumption coupled with a lower cost process enables Suniva to significantly reduce the cost per watt of its cells and ultimately the final installed cost of PV systems.

“Cost effective, utility scale solar power generation represents a large part of this nation’s future renewable energy portfolio and can be a very competitive supply source for utilities in high solar insolation regions. Suniva’s technology roadmap offers a fast and realistic path to achieve grid parity for environmentally advanced large scale power supplies,” said Larry Kellerman, a managing director of Goldman Sachs and president of Cogentrix.

John Baumstark, president and CEO of Suniva said, “This round marks a major milestone in our path to commercialization and speaks to the acumen of our stellar group of investors and board members. As the industry looks to scale production and bring down costs, Suniva’s experienced executive team and proven technology is well positioned to lead the industry with its high-value approach to solar cell manufacturing.”

Suniva develops, manufactures and markets high-value, high-efficiency crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells for clean solar power generation. Our world-class team has decades of PV industry experience and a unique development approach that enables us to deliver leading-edge solar cell performance while dramatically cutting the cost of PV-generated electricity. Suniva’s primary goal of enabling mass adoption of high efficiency solar technology has significant economic, social and environmental benefits and all of our research, development and manufacturing are based in the USA.

Suniva evolved from the work of Professor Ajeet Rohatgi of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics (UCEP), the nation’s premier silicon PV research center. Suniva has an exclusive license to the critical patents and patent-pending and intellectual property developed at UCEP over 15 years in addition to valuable research, modeling techniques as well as deep process know-how.

For more information, please visit www.suniva.com