Organic solar firm enjoys growing financial support

German solar cell start-up Heliatek GmbH has announced that it has secured €18m (£16m) through a second round of financing that will allow it to begin work on a manufacturing facility near its Dresden headquarters.

The company, which was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from the Universities of Dresden and Ulm, specialises in the development of so-called organic solar cells that use carbon and other organic materials to create dyes that convert sunlight to electricity.

Advocates of the technology predict that the use of organic materials means it will ultimately prove more cost effective than both traditional silicon-based photovoltaic cells and emerging thin-film technologies.

Organic solar cells are also extremely lightweight, with Heliatek claiming that its cells weigh just 500 grams per square metre, compared to about 20 kilograms per square metre for typical PV solar cells. The company predicts that as a result, the technology will prove well suited to building integrated and even mobile applications such as vehicles.

However, critics counter that the technology lacks the conversion efficiencies enjoyed by other PV technologies. According to Heliatek, the company's cells have been certified as delivering a power conversion efficiency of 6.1 per cent, which is less than half the 15 per cent-plus conversion efficiencies enjoyed by some other PV technologies.

The latest funding round was led by European venture capital firm Wellington Partners, and also included Bosch, RWE Innogy Ventures and BASF Venture Capital, the investment arm of chemical giant BASF which has worked with Heliatek on the development of the organic materials used in the cells.

Bart Markus, general partner of Wellington Partners, said that Heliatek was well positioned in a market that promises to deliver impressive growth. "We believe that truly breakthrough third-generation technologies that bring PV well beyond grid parity will be the success stories of the future, and we think Heliatek is excellently positioned to capture that opportunity," he said.

Dr Andreas Rückemann, Heliatek chief executive, said that the new funding would allow the company to become one of the first developers of organic solar cells to build a production operation and demonstrate the cost advantages the technology can enjoy.