Siva Power Secures New Funding, Hires China Market Executive

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Siva Power, a leader in advanced solar energy, today announced it has received an initial investment in a $15 million round to help scale the manufacturing of its industry-leading thin film solar technology, which can surpass the U.S. Dept. of Energy's SunShot Initiative target of solar module cost of $0.50/watt. The company has also hired solar industry veteran Leroy Luo as president of Siva Power China to lead operations in that market.

The new capital came from four investors, including three existing investors: Trident Capital, DBL Investors and Acero Capital.  The city of Wuxi, China came in as a new investor. The capital will be used to scale up the R&D process by building a small mini-module pilot line, the last step before full commercialization of Siva Power's CIGS technology.

The SunShot Initiative has set a target of reducing solar module costs to $0.50/watt by 2020. Siva Power estimates it can achieve manufacturing cost of less than $0.40/watt after full deployment of its giga-scale production line.

"The addition of new capital and a seasoned energy industry executive provides momentum toward building the solar industry's 'factory of the future' with gigawatt production capacity at the world's lowest cost in solar," said company CEO Brad Mattson. "Quickly emerging as a leading solar market, China is a critical piece of our success, and we are very excited to have Leroy Luo further augment our world-class team."

Based in Shanghai, Luo has spent nearly a decade as a senior executive in the advanced thin film solar industry, co-founding NuvoSun and serving as an executive at Miasole. He has more than 25 years of international business management and engineering experience in high-technology companies in both the United States and China. Before entering the solar industry, he was an engineering executive and later an investor in the semiconductor industry.  Luo holds multiple degrees in solid-state physics and electrical engineering (BS, MS, MSEE and Ph.D. candidate) from Zhongshan University and The University of Texas.

"Siva Power has a technology that will help not only China, but the world, achieve the scale that the solar industry requires," said Luo. "I'm very excited to join the Siva Power team and to build a market for the best thin film technology for the future."    

About Siva Power

Siva Power is a leader in advanced solar device and manufacturing technology. It is developing a solar factory built for the "gigawatt era," with the goal of attaining the lowest production cost in the world. The company's thin-film photovoltaic solar panels, using copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), combine innovations in equipment, materials and process to achieve high efficiency at unprecedented scale. For more information, visit www.sivapower.com.

SOURCE Siva Power