Norwegian investors are giving Sand Hill Road a run for its money with a $30 million investment in thin-film solar company SoloPower.

Oslo-based Convexa Capital led the deal, bringing SoloPower’s total funding to about $42.3 million. Also joining in the deal were two Norwegian companies, offshore drilling and shipping firm Spencer Energy,  and clean technology holding group Scatec.

The who’s who of the investment is worthy of note. Alf Bjørseth, Scatec’s chairman and owner, is one of the founders and former chief executive of Renewable Energy Corporation, the world’s largest maker of polysilicon and wafers—the raw materials of the solar energy industry.

“Although they’re highly silicon-focused, they like what we’re doing and the way we do it, and they decided to support it,” said SoloPower’s CEO Homayoun Talieh of his company’s Norwegian backers.

Existing funders Crosslink Capital, Firsthand Capital Management, and Musea Ventures also joined in the round, which was announced Thursday. Mr. Talieh said the infusion will be used to build a 20-megawatt production capacity plant that will go online toward the end of next year.

A worldwide shortage of solar-grade polysilicon in recent years has spurred investment in photovoltaic technologies that get more out of less of the precious material, including thin-film solar cells and solar concentrators.

Like rivals Nanosolar, Miasolé and Stion, Milpitas, California-based SoloPower is developing thin-film technology to minimize dependence on polysilicon through the use of other materials in the solar cells that turn sunlight into electricity.

While it is not unique in the materials it uses in place of polysilicon, a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide (CIGS), the startup claims it has succeeded in adapting a well-known electroplating process to the task of making solar cells from those expensive materials with minimal wastage.

“[These] are expensive materials—you don’t want to waste them,” Mr. Talieh said. “Electroplating is a process that uses close to 100 percent of the raw material.”

SoloPower, which was founded in January of 2006, recently won a U.S. Department of Energy $2.37 million research grant. It previously raised $10 million in a series A round.