Thursday, December 20, 2007

HelioVolt Selects Austin for Site of First Plant

HelioVolt Corp., a manufacturer of thin-film solar energy products, announced Thursday that it plans to construct its first production facility in its hometown of Austin, Texas. HelioVolt said its inaugural plant will have an initial production capacity of 20 megawatts and should create more than 150 jobs. The factory, HelioVolt explained, will employ its proprietary FASST manufacturing process on a commercial scale, producing copper-iridium-gallium-selenide thin-film solar products as soon as next year. The company said it will finance the construction with money obtained from its recently concluded Series B funding effort that raised over $101 million. The new plant will be located within Austin's Expo Business Park, HelioVolt added.