On Oct 7, 2008, Solyndra Inc, after three years of silence, just announced landing $1.2 billion in contracts on their new thin-film solar power modules. According to their press release, “Solyndra’s photovoltaic (PV) system is designed to generate significantly more solar electricity on an annual basis from typical low-slope commercial rooftops with lower installation costs than conventional PV flat panel technologies.” Solyndra has claimed significan advances in solar technology: their technology uses rows of cylindrical cells, which absorb more light, have less wind resistance, and are much easier to install than conventional systems.

Headquartered in Fremont, California, Solyndra has been extremely well funded with over $600 million dollars from investors that include Virgin Green Fund, Madrone Capital Partners, Rockport Capital Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, CMEA Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. The two largest clients are Solar Power Inc. of Arizona (with a deal over $300 million) and Phoenix Solar AG out of Germany (with a deal over $680 million). Solynda’s facilities are state-of-the-art with over 300,000 square feet and a fully-automated manufacturing floor with heavy use of robotics.

Manfred Bachler, Chief Technical Officer at Phoenix Solar AG comments, “By eliminating the need for roof-penetrating mounts and wind ballasts, PV arrays with Solyndra panels can be installed with one-third the labor, in one-third of the time, at one-half the cost.” Learn more at www.solyndra.com.