Our manufacturing is better. That is, in essence, the business plan of Telio Solar Technologies, a relatively new and relatively unknown maker of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells. We wrote about the company earlier today and have now spoken to Vice President of Operations Peter Kim. The company has devised a co-evaporation manufacturing process (evaporation plus chemical deposition) that will result in inexpensive CIGS cells with comparatively high efficiency, Kim said. The company has licensed its CIGS chemistry formula from the Institute of Energy Conversion at the University of Delaware. Telio's own intellectual property revolves around how to manufacture cells in large volumes: executives from the company come from some of the large LCD makers in South Korea. (Side note: the IEC is also working on CIGS on flexible substrates with Dow Corning.) Before the end of the year, Telio wants to produce a 300mm x 300mm prototype with around a 10 percent efficiency. By the beginning of 2010, it wants to be in mass production with a 30-MW facility. The solar cells coming out of the factory then are expected to have an efficiency of 13 percent. Telio is also shooting to be on par with thin-film specialist First Solar. (First Solar hovers around $1 per watt for a module, not including the other costs that go into putting out a solar system.) By 2015, the company wants to be producing solar cells with a 15 percent or higher efficiency for something close to 70 cents a watt. The shots below are from the prototype factory. The company will primarily focus on producing large modules for utility solar farms, similar to the kinds of things being made by First Solar (cadmium telluride solar cells), Signet Solar and the other Applied Materials client states (amorphous silicon.) "Our focus is on the large glass substrate," Kim said. "We are really focused on mass manufacturing." The company was only started in late 2007. It raised $3 million and with that built a prototype production line in South Korea. In the CIGS world, that is both quick and cheap. It will try to raise another round soon. William Miller, the CEO Emeritus of SRI, is an adviser. While the company still has a ways to go, it will be interesting to see what happens and how the collective experience it has in LCDs and semiconductors play out.