Solaria Corporation yesterday announced it raised $65 million in series D financing to expand production of their solar modules, which are designed specifically for ground-mounted tracking systems. The company uses a manufacturing process that “requires only a fraction of the capital expenditure per watt of manufacturing capacity needed by standard industry practices.”

Now that’s kind of a big deal. Whenever the future of solar comes up in conversation, one of the first things you’ll hear is how great things will be “when we drive down the cost of solar panels,” or more ambitiously, “when we reach grid parity.” The problem with that kind of rhetoric is that it usually lacks specific details about progress being made toward these goals. Solaria’s news, however, was a lot more tangible and just as exciting. They have found and patented a way to manufacture solar panels at a fraction of the current cost.

Solaria explains their cost breakthrough on their company website, highlighting an unusually short “energy payback” for modules with complex tracking technology:

PV already has an attractive “energy payback” of about 1.9 years, meaning that the energy required to produce a PV module is generated in 1.9 years of operation. Solaria brings the energy payback to less than 1 year, further contributing to PV’s role as a leading energy solution with negligible carbon footprint in its creation.

Investors seem to agree that this invention matters, coughing up $65 million is this round of funding. The funding will be used to increase availability of Solaria’s panels worldwide, and it includes a $10 million growth loan facility. Solaria saw investments from Adams Street Partners, Cycad Group, enXco, Western Technologies (WTI), CMEA Capital, and DBL Investors.