Suniva, a high-efficiency solar cell maker and one of GTM's Top Ten Startups, has inked a $500 million cell supply deal with module maker Solon AG. The four year deal runs from 2009 to 2012 and matches up well with the expansion plans Suniva's announced over the last couple months. In June, Suniva announced it would begin production on a 32 MW pilot plant with plans to scale the plant by an additional 100 MW over the next two years. Though not an exact match, the initial capacities and announced projections are similar to those accomplished by panel maker Evergreen Solar. That company recently opened its first commercial-scale manufacturing facility, which will scale to 160 MW by the end of 2009. Evergreen's plant opening came on the heels of a series of supply deal announcements worth a combined $3 billion. The difference between Evergreen and Suniva, though, is that Evergreen is a fairly well capitalized, publicly traded company while Suniva is an almost-two-year-old startup that's raised $55 million over two rounds of venture capital funding. What's interesting about Suniva is that it looks like they've chosen to move quickly into production mode without necessarily going in search of more financing. While they don't appear to have that much cash on hand and have also recently signed a $300 million contract to buy wafers from REC, growing through contract sales may be an optimal solution. Other solar startups with promising technologies - thin film makers HelioVolt and Nanosolar, for example - raised +$100 million expansion rounds and have yet to sign anything as tangible as this. Nanosolar's eBay flop and $50 million deal with EdF, notwithstanding. But then maybe the challenges of making CIGS are greater than building out a fab for ultra-thin solar cells with 20 percent conversion efficiency. Still, given all the talk recently about scalability challenges and venture firms raising ever larger funds to address some of these issues, it's refreshing to see a small company set out to do one thing well and execute on that goal. And this shouldn't be the last announcement we hear from Suniva. Back in June CEO John Baumstarck told Greentech Media his company was negotiating deals with three major international customers. Just how big of a bet is Solon - Germany's largest module maker - making on Suniva? Well, I guess that depends on how many solar cells you can get for $500 million. Even though Suniva, like pretty much anyone else, is planning to make cells for $1/watt, current prices costs come in around $2.50/watt. So, scratching that one on the back of the envelope, we get somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 MW. Which means, at current capacity projections, Suniva's on track to fulfill the order while leaving plenty of room left over in annual production capacity to sign a couple more deals.