Intel leads €85m investment round in Sulfurcell

2008-07-11

Sulfurcell Solartechnik GmbH of Berlin, Germany, which makes solar modules based on thin-film copper indium sulphide (CIS), has raised €85m (about $133m) in an equity fundraising round led by Intel Capital, the investment arm of chip maker Intel of Santa Clara, CA, USA, which has invested €24m. Other investment included €38m from Climate Change Capital Private Equity and Zouk Ventures (both of London, UK), AIG (Zurich, Switzerland), Demeter Partners (Paris, France) and BankInvest (Copenhagen, Denmark), plus €23m coming from existing investors.

Sulfurcell was founded in 2001 by Ilka Luck and Nikolaus Meyer of the Hahn-Meitner-Institut (now the Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy), and in 2002 raised €9m from private investors, followed in 2003 by R&D grants of €7m from the Senate of Berlin. The firm subsequently set up pilot production, leading to market introduction in 2005. Sulfurcell now has 120 staff.

Sulfurcell’s pilot-production line has demonstrated product performance and process scalability to enable future high-volume supply, it is claimed. “We have an aggressive growth strategy and the funding will enable us to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for thin-film solar modules in all market segments,” says CEO Dr Nikolaus Meyer. The firm will therefore use the latest funding to expand its production with a new plant in Berlin that will have a capacity of 75MW.

“Intel Capital invested in Sulfurcell because CIS/CIGSe [copper indium sulphide/copper indium gallium diselenide] solar modules have demonstrated some of the highest energy conversion efficiencies of all thin-film materials,” says Heiko von Dewitz, investment director of Intel Capital’s cleantech sector in Europe and Israel. “They also enable emerging applications such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), where solar modules are integrated in the core structure of roofs and walls,” he adds. “Germany is a leader in adopting photovoltaics as an alternative energy source and we believe Sulfurcell is well positioned to contribute to broader adoption in Germany and in other countries worldwide.”