The funding round will also strengthen the California company's balance sheet, giving its customers assurance of its longevity and allowing them to obtain lower cost financing for projects using Amonix technology, according to chief executive Brian Robertson.

Ben Kortlang, a partner with KPCB, states: “Amonix CPV systems have emerged as the lowest cost solar technology for sunny and dry environments.”

The company, founded in 1989, uses inexpensive optics – plastic Fresnel lenses – to concentrate sunlight “to 500 times its usual intensity onto very small, highly-efficient” multijunction solar cells.