Estonian start-up stories by Toivo Tänavsuu
In: Companies
24 Aug 2009
Crystalsol, the next generation photovoltaic developer has closed its seed financing round with two Nordic venture capital funds. Together with Enterprise Estonia the investment volume reaches 2.5 million euros.
Crystalsol developes entirely new type of flexible photovoltaic module, that has significant advantages in cost (reduction of 70-80 percent) and versatility.
Interestingly the technology, that has been developed in Tallinn Technological University, is based on decades of research for the Russian military and Philips semiconductor know-how from the 1960′s.
Crystalsol’s module, currently in prototyping phase, has light absorbing active layer made of so-called Monograin Membrane (pictured above) – special powder of copper, zinc, tin, selenium and sulphur. There are silicon, indium nor tellurium.
The main area to use Crystalsol’s module is building integration – they can be put into rooftops or integrated into windows.