Chint Solar on Tuesday announced it has raised $50 million in a first round of funding co-led by Cybernaut Growth Fund and Shanghai Alliance Investment.

While the China-based solar startup primarily produces crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, it has also been working on a line of amorphous/microcrystalline silicon tandem thin film cells, which the funding will help move into mass production later this year.

“Cutting-edge technology and the future potential of a vast market are the two key market drivers that have attracted our major investors,” Chint Solar CEO Liyou Yang said in a statement.

The thin film line has lower efficiency (approximately 9 percent conversion rate compared to the 17 percent of the silicon cells), but through this line Chint Solar will be able to reduce solar module costs to less than $1 per watt, an important step in achieving grid parity.

The current cost of electricity generated from solar power is twice that at roughly $2 per watt.

Chint Solar hopes to get to 380 megawatt production capacity by 2010 and expand to 1,100 megawatts of capacity by 2012.