Morgan Solar secures USD $4.7 million institutional investment and launches
manufacturing of the Sun Simba HCPV

    
    Solar energy start-up Morgan Solar closes first tranche of their round A
    investment with Iberdrola Group SA, Nypro Inc, and Turnstone Capital
    Management LLC.
    

TORONTO , Oct. 9 /CNW/ - Morgan Solar Inc., a Toronto based solar energy start-up, completed the first part of their Round A investment, securing USD $4.7 Million from Iberdrola Group SA, Nypro Inc, and Turnstone Capital Management LLC. Morgan Solar has developed a breakthrough Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic (CPV) panel called the Sun Simba HCPV, a high efficiency, low cost solar technology designed for utility scale and large distributed generation applications. Morgan Solar has spent the last two years designing, testing and refining a technology that is poised to make a major impact in the solar energy industry. John Paul Morgan , Chief Technology Officer at Morgan Solar and inventor of the proprietary optics technology, acknowledges the investment's significance, "Iberdrola Group is the biggest possible industry partner we could have, and Nypro are global experts in the manufacturing processes we use. That these companies got in early with us makes me realize how big this could be."

A syndicate led by Turnstone Capital Management LLC and including Inversiones Financieras Perseo SL, the venture initiative of Iberdrola Group and New Ventures Group LLC the venture investment subsidiary of Nypro Inc will fund Morgan Solar's migration from research and development to manufacturing. The first tranche of this first investment round is now closed and an additional investment tranche will close soon.

The investors offer Morgan Solar considerably more than just the dollars needed to ramp up manufacturing. Two of the investors, Iberdrola Group and Nypro, now also have a strategic interest in the future success of Morgan Solar .

Iberdrola Group, the largest electrical utility in Spain , one of the five largest electrical utilities in the world and the world's largest investor in renewable energy has taken an early stake in the company by investing USD $2.5 million . Pedro Velasco , Director of Non-Energy Businesses at Iberdrola Group said, "Iberdrola's venture initiative, Inversiones Financieras Perseo SL, is specifically dedicated to investing in early stage, paradigm changing renewable energy technologies that appear to have a very high success potential. We have reviewed hundreds of investment opportunities over the last few years and only invested in Morgan Solar and four others. Their CPV technology is revolutionary, highly efficient and simple to manufacture at very low costs. We see a winner in the making and we took a position as soon as we saw it."

Similarly, Nypro Inc, a global leader in precision injection molding and contract manufacturing with operations in 16 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, offers a further strategic advantage in addition to capital. Nypro has invested USD $1.0 million and becomes a key partner in the manufacturing and product assembly by providing the capacity to quickly scale up manufacturing of the Sun Simba HCPV globally. Michael Fallon , VP/GM of New Ventures Group at Nypro Inc said, "Nypro is constantly looking for innovations that have the potential to dramatically change an industry, while presenting synergies with our core strengths in injection molding and contract manufacturing around the world. We wanted to enter the solar energy market and we were looking for a next generation technology when we found Morgan Solar ."

Turnstone Capital Management LLC led the formation of the investment syndicate. Marc La Magna, Managing Director at Turnstone Capital commented, "We're very pleased to have found and invested in Morgan Solar , and believe the company's technology is a fundamental leap forward in exploiting solar energy effectively. Our views of Morgan Solar's business model and approach to manufacturing highly efficient solar solutions at competitive cost were quickly validated by our co-investors Iberdrola and Nypro. We look forward to supporting Morgan Solar's corporate development as it strives to make a significant impact on the PV market in the years to come."

Morgan Solar is now putting together a pilot manufacturing facility to build the Sun Simba HCPV. Their plan is to deploy demonstration and evaluation installations soon, while fine tuning the manufacturing processes and moving toward commercial release in late 2010.

About Iberdrola Group

Iberdrola is Spain's number one energy group, one of the five largest electricity companies in the world and a world leader in wind power. With 33,000 employees in more than 40 countries, the Group has power generation assets of 26,631 MW in Spain , 6,826 MW in the United Kingdom , 4.038 MW in the United States , 5,445 MW in Latin America and 985 MW distributed around the rest of the world.

Iberdrola Group, through its subsidiary Iberdrola Renovables SA, has the world's largest portfolio of renewable energy investments, with over 10,000 MW of clean energy assets in operation and a portfolio exceeding 56,000 MW of renewable energy projects around the world. Iberdrola Renovables operates in more than 20 countries, including the markets with the greatest growth and development potential in renewable energy. It is in the top ten companies of the Ibex-35 market index based on stock value and is the fastest growing division of the Iberdrola Group.

About Nypro Inc

Nypro is a global plastics and injection molding company with 49 operations in 16 countries and 2008 revenues of $1.2 billion . Nypro invested in Morgan Solar through its wholly owned subsidiary New Ventures Group LLC, which is focused on connecting emerging innovators with Nypro's global presence in markets such as healthcare, consumer & electronics, consumer packaging and clean tech.

About Turnstone Capital Management LLC

Turnstone Capital Management LLC is a Connecticut-based investment management firm founded in 2004. Turnstone's partners have deep experience in venture capital and private equity finance, technology, and operations which enables them to uncover proprietary investment opportunities in private, emerging growth companies. Turnstone seeks to partner with capable and committed management teams, and provide the financial, relationship, and strategic resources to help management achieve their corporate goals.

About Morgan Solar Inc

Morgan Solar Inc was founded in early 2007 to develop next generation solar power technologies that will make solar energy significantly less expensive. They have developed a number of concentrated photovoltaic technologies, of which the first to market will be the Sun Simba HCPV. This high efficiency, low cost concentrated photovoltaic solar panel uses a completely new type of optical concentration system - the light-guide solar optic (LSO). The LSO allows Morgan Solar to avoid the high cost and complexity inherent in current concentrating optics and panel structures based on mirrors and lenses, thus delivering a simple, low cost, efficient solar panel that is ideal for the utility scale and distributed generation solar power markets.

For further information: Nicolas Morgan, VP Business Development & Marketing, Morgan Solar Inc. at [email protected], or at [phone]