Total grows solar push with $45M funding to Konarka

Lowell, Mass.-based solar company Konarka Technologies said today it raised $45 million from Paris-based Total (NYSE: TOT) as part of a research-and-development partnership.

Total's stake in Konarka is now nearly 20 percent, making the oil and gas company Konarka's largest shareholder. Konarka is also backed by 3i Group, Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Eastman Chemical and New Enterprise Associates.

Konarka developed a flexible, thin-film plastic that converts light to energy. The company plans to develop new components with Total subsidiaries Atotech, Bostik, Hutchinson, Sartomer and Total Petrochemicals USA.

Total has a growing chemical segment that's working to diversify the source of plastic feedstock. In October, the company opened a €45 million demonstration plant in Feluy, Belgium, to produce olefins and polyolefins from methanol to make plastics (see Total to make plastics from methanol).

As part of the agreement, Konarka plans to help Total grow its thin-film segment. Total also plans to increase its crystalline silicon-based cell production.

Total operates a joint solar venture with GDF Suez and Belgium's Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center, or Imec. The Belgium-based JV, Photovoltech, said in September it plans to build a new plant to increase solar production to 260 megawatts by the end of 2010 (see Photovoltech to boost capacity to 260MW).

In the past couple years, Konarka has experimented with inkjet printing (see Konarka demonstrates inkjet printed solar cells), organic photovoltaics (see German government invests €2.5M in OPV research) and building-integrated solar products (see Air Products, Konarka to work on solar window modules).