Odersun, the German maker of flexible copper indium disulphide (CIS) solar cells, has named Hein van der Zeeuw CEO. He replaces Ramin Lavae Mokhtari, who helped guide the company from the R&D phase to early manufacturing. Under Mokhtari, Odersun raised a $60 million B round in early 2008 from Virgin Green Fund, PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund, AGF Private Equity, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, and Advanced Technology & Materials. It also received ~$30 million in German government funding. The money was largely used to erect a 30-megawatt-a-year factory. The idea is that van der Zeeuw will now beef up mass manufacturing and sales. Before Odersun, he was part of the management team at NXP Semiconductor, the chip spin off from Philips. Odersun's roll-to-roll manufacturing process uses long reels of copper tape and can be packaged in flexible or rigid formats. So far, they company has made small amounts of cells for solar backpacks. Reel-to-reel manufacturing costs far less, say proponents, that the traditional cook-etch-and cut techniques used for crystalline solar cells adopted from the chip industry. Copper indium disulphide solar cells are close relatives to copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and copper indium selenide. "They are very close cousins," said Sorin Grana, a solar analyst with Prometheus Institute. He writes thin-film research reports for Greentech Media.