Top Ten Solar

4. Solyndra

For years, developers of copper, indium, gallium and selenide panels have promised to provide a good alternative to the conventional crystalline silicon panels. Fremont, Calif.-based Solyndra appears to be making good progress to deliver just that. The company has signed sales contracts worth more than $1 billion, and has seen commercial installations of its panels (see Solyndra Boosts Power Output). In comparison, many of its competitors are still getting ready to mass-produce their CIGS panels.

That gives Solyndra a good head start. It has a factory that can produce 110 megawatts of panels per year, though the company has declined to disclose its production rate. It is planning to build a second factory, and is set to receive a whopping $535 million federal loan to build a second factory that could produce 500 megawatts of solar panels per year. If plans go as expected, Solyndra will be busy building that factory in 2010 and start shipping panels from there in early 2011.

The federal loan would cover 73 percent of the project cost, and Solyndra hasn't said whether it's lined up the rest of the funds, however. Meanwhile, fellow CIGS companies also are claiming to be making good progress on their plans. San Jose, Calif.-based SoloPower said it plans to start commercial production in a few months (see Gunther Portfolio). Nanosolar, also in San Jose, began building a 1-megawatt power project in Germany last October (see Nanosolar Broke Ground on 1MW Power plant, Launched German Panel Factory).