NorSun Nabs $163M to Crank Out More Silicon Wafers for Solar Cells

norsun-logoA shakeout may be underway for the solar sector, but one manufacturer, Norway-based NorSun, has just made a deal that could help carry it through the downturn. The company has raised 1.15 billion NOK (about $163 million) to expand its production of silicon wafers and ingots for high-efficiency solar cells, including about 500 million NOK (around $72.3 million) in venture capital and 650 million NOK (just over $94 million) five-year bank loan, the company announced yesterday.

Led by renewable energy investment firm Good Energies, which founded the thin-film solar company Sunfilm AG with NorSun two years ago, and joined by previous investors Scatec AS and Norsk Hydro, this latest round of financing is meant to go toward investment in more R&D, expanded production at a facility in Årdal, Norway, and further development of Sunfilm AG (NorSun holds a 29.5 percent stake).

In addition to having fresh capital — hard to come by for many solar companies these days — NorSun has the benefit of operating several links in the chain away from end customers, making silicon wafers and ingots for high-efficiency solar cells. Companies positioned closer to the end of that chain are more likely to suffer big hits as a result of oversupply and relatively low oil prices, as Reuters noted last month.

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Amid increasingly gloomy forecasts for the solar industry over the last several months, Sunfilm’s technology — thin-film — has offered a brighter note: Lux Research, for example, said last month that while “widespread company failure” should be expected in the industry at large, Lux anticipates gains for thin-film this year and significant strides toward grid parity.

All is not sunny for NorSun, however. According to a report picked up by Reuters from Norway’s Dagens Naeringsliv newspaper, Norsun’s equity was valued at nearly 2 billion NOK ($283 million) this time around, down from 5.4 billion NOK (about $781 million) a year ago.

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