MiaSolé

About MiaSolé

MiaSolé, founded in 2004, operates in the renewable energy sector with a focus on producing advanced solar energy products. The company specializes in the manufacturing of lightweight, flexible, and powerful copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules. This technology is deposited onto a flexible stainless steel substrate using a continuous sputtering process, a method common in high-volume manufacturing industries like disk drive production.

The company's history is marked by significant venture capital investment, raising approximately $500 million from investors such as VantagePoint Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins. After navigating the challenges of scaling its CIGS technology, MiaSolé was acquired by the Chinese clean energy company Hanergy in a deal that closed in early 2013 for a reported $30 million. This acquisition allowed MiaSolé to focus more on research and development while leveraging Hanergy's global reach. The company's founder, Dave Pearce, acknowledged the initial difficulties in scaling the technology before new management took over in 2007. The current CEO is Dr. Jie Zhang, who brings extensive experience from the semiconductor and renewable energy industries.

MiaSolé's business model encompasses two main streams: selling its flexible solar modules and providing turnkey CIGS equipment lines for customers to produce their own high-efficiency cells. Its clientele is diverse, ranging from large-scale commercial and utility projects to applications requiring flexible and lightweight energy solutions, such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and portable mobile devices. The product's key features include its flexibility, allowing it to conform to curved structures, its light weight which reduces installation complexity and cost, and its durability. These CIGS panels are noted for their high efficiency rates within the thin-film category, competing closely with traditional silicon PV cells and achieving module efficiencies of 17.5% in production. The company has achieved several world records for efficiency in flexible solar cells, including a 23% power conversion efficiency on a tandem perovskite-CIGS cell developed in partnership with Solliance Solar Research.