Climate Change Capital and Sulfurcell
Navigant Consulting, 2008
Securing the development of more efficient solar cells
Summary
This is the Catch-22 of green energy: to make the technology a commercially viable alternative to carbon-based fuel needs investment, but investors will only fund technology that is commercially viable. Breaking into this circle requires not only the ability to spot potential but the determination to realise it.
Climate Change Capital Private Equity (“CPE”) saw that potential in Sulfurcell, a German company with a unique pilot plant manufacturing thin-film solar cells. Although Sulfurcell demonstrated an impressive level of module efficiency yield and cycle times, CPE needed reassurance that the firm could meet the operational challenges symptomatic of the incredibly fast-growing solar PV market. CPE therefore asked Navigant Consulting first to help them evaluate Sufurcell’s technology and business plan, and then to identify ways in which these operational challenges could be met, making Sulfurcell a compelling proposition for investors.
The result was probably the largest clean tech growth capital fund investment in Europe so far this year with €85 million now being invested in the German company. “It’s not just the size of the deal that’s significant here,” says Alex Betts of CPE, “but the way in which it has raised Sulfurcell’s profile in the solar PV and investor community. With Navigant’s input, we were able to attract well-known investors to give them the capital they need. With our help and Navigant’s, Sulfurcell has catapulted themselves into the consciousness of the solar industry.”
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