Advanced solar cell company Advent Solar receives $30M inves

http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2005/11/07/daily24.html
Advent Solar receives $30M investment
Advanced solar cell company Advent Solar said Thursday it has closed a $30 million round of venture financing that it will use to build a manufacturing facility in Albuquerque's 12,000 acre-Mesa del Sol development.
The new plant will produce the company's photovoltaic panels and could generate up to 1,000 manufacturing and related jobs over the next five years, according to a news release put out in conjunction with Gov. Bill Richardson's announcement of the funding and the new plant.
The financing is the latest in a particularly busy investment year for New Mexico. Including private equity and venture capital transactions, at least $86 million has been invested in New Mexico companies and insiders say at least one more deal could form before 2006.
Advent's announcement represents the state's largest venture capital round of the year.
Leading the round was Battery Ventures, which has offices in California and Massachusetts. Other investors include EnerTech Capital Partners of Pennsylvania, @Ventures of Massachusetts, Seattle-based Angels with Attitude, California-based Firelake Capital and the New Mexico Co-Investment Partners, the state's own $46 million direct investment venture fund.
Battery Ventures and Firelake are both first-time investors in Advent, which is developing an efficient photovoltaic panel, primarily for residential installations. Advent calls its technology "advanced" because its design and manufacturing methods make the panels more efficient and less expensive to produce than conventional photovoltaics. The technology was first developed at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.
The $30 million round is Advent's third formal fundraising round, commonly known as a Series C round. Late last year, the company closed its second round, totaling $8 million, aiding its move into its existing pilot production facility at the University of New Mexico Science and Technology Park in Southeast Albuquerque.
Advent Solar was founded in 2002 by CEO Rusty Schmit and former Sandia employee James Gee. Gee is Advent's chief technology officer. The company will start shipping its panels by the end of this year and is scheduled to be ramped up to full production at its new facility by 2007.
Construction on the 100,000-square-foot plant will start in December and is scheduled to be completed in June of 2006, according to a news release.
The new plant is the first tenant to commit to moving into Mesa del Sol, a master-planned area composed of seven villages, and commercial and industrial sites just south of Albuquerque's Kirtland Air force Base. Mesa del Sol being planned by Forest City Covington NM LLC, a joint venture between Forest City Enterprises (NYSE: FCEA), an 80-year-old, $7.2 billion real estate company based in Cleveland and Covington Capital, a major residential and industrial developer in the Southwest. Forest City developed the master-planned community on the site of the former Stapleton airport in Denver.
This year's third quarter was the first in 19 quarters in New Mexico where manufacturing job growth hit positive territory. Economists have predicted healthy growth in that state sector over the next two years.
Advent's news is just the latest in a series of announcements about manufacturing expansions planned in New Mexico. A few of the companies that plan to open or expand such facilities in the Land of Enchantment between now and 2007 include Rio Rancho's Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Albuquerque's Tempur-Pedic International Inc. and Millenium Transit in Roswell. Additionally, if personal jet manufacturer Eclipse Aviation obtains Federal Aviation Administration approval for its 6-seat airplane next year, that company anticipates adding hundreds more manufacturing jobs to the Albuquerque economy.