6N Silicon Inc., a provider of solar-grade silicon for the solar industry based near Toronto, recently announced it secured $20 million in second-round financing. The investment round was led by Good Energies, and included investments from Ventures West Management and Yaletown Venture Partners, both of which contributed to the company's first round of private financing. 6N Silicon says it plans to use the money to move into commercial production.

Winner of the Deloitte & Touche Technology Green 15 Award as one of the top 15 green technology companies in Canada, 6N Silicon is aiming to be the lowest-cost provider of solar grade silicon. Its process does not require blending with high-purity silicon, which helps keep production costs well below the cost of conventional silicon purification processes, according to the company. With
low capital equipment and production costs, the 6N process can be quickly scaled up and requires less energy than conventional silicon purification processes.

"Good Energies conducted a considerable amount of due diligence on our company and our process," said Paolo Maccario, CEO of 6N Silicon. "This investment, therefore, is a significant endorsement by one of the industry's most respected investors, and is an important step towards achieving our goal of becoming a leading supplier of solar grade silicon within the next three to five years."

Good Energies, which has offices in London, New York, Toronto, Washington D.C., and Zug, was named the No. 1 venture capital investor in 2007 by research firm New Energy Finance.  Good Energies claimed the top spot with 20 publicly announced investments into 19 companies in different sectors worldwide. The total value of its publicly announced investments in 2007 was $100.6 million.