Why First Solar is buying a silicon solar cell startup no one's heard of

First Solar is buying an under-the-radar startup called TetraSun to add expertise around silicon solar cell manufacturing to its technology portfolio, which until now has focused on using the material cadmium telluride to make solar cells. The Arizona-based thin film solar giant announced the pending acquisition on Tuesday during its analyst day - its first since 2009 - in which it laid out a persuasive technology and business development plan fo ...

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http://gigaom.com/2013/04/09/why-first-solar-is-buying-a-silicon-solar

The demise of yet another thin film solar maker

The lights are apparently out for yet another thin film solar startup. Global Solar Energy, which was building a business around flexible solar panels, is laying off nearly all of its employees and stopping its manufacturing operation, according to Inside Tucson Business.

The Arizona-based company developed ultra-thin solar panels using the materials copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) to convert sunlight into electricity. Venture-backed Global Solar initially sold strings of CIGS solar cells to companies that would then assemble those strings into panels. Around 2009, the company said it would focus on making flexible solar panels that forgo the use of glass as a protective cover.

Flexible panels could be a good fit for roofs that can't bear heavy weight, or they could be shaped to resemble - or become embedded in - roofing materials. But foregoing the use of glass meant Global Solar had to find another way to protect the CIGS from its chief enemy: moisture. Companies such as 3M in recent years have rolled out protective films for moisture-sensitive solar cells, but those encapsulants tend to be expensive. A Global Solar executive told me last year that the company had found a good barrier film for its CIGS cells, though he declined to divulge its cost or maker.

Global Solar's star seemed to be rising when it started to work with Dow Chemical to create roofing shingles with its CIGS cells inside. Partnering with a large company meant Global Solar could lean on Dow to help promote its technology. But Dow delayed the launch of roofing shingles, especially given the home construction market was in poor health following the mortgage crisis. Dow finally launched the solar shingle product about a year ago in Colorado. It then began selling them in California and Texas earlier this year.

Global Solar had factories in Tucson and Germany. By Arizona law the company had to notify the state when it was planning any meaningful layoffs. It filed a notice in July about letting go nearly 40 employees. A Global Solar employee told Inside Tucson Business that the company was laying off about 95.

Global Solar appears to be a casualty of an imbalance of supply and demand that has persisted for two years and knocked out dozens of solar manufacturers worldwide. Major solar panel makers, including Suntech Power, First Solar and SunPower, all have shuttered production lines and posted losses as a result. Suntech recently announced its plan to scale back production and lay off about 50 employees at its Arizona factory.

Startups have had a harder time toughening it out because they typically lack the financial strength of their larger rivals. Most often times they need to be in an expansion mode - to build factories and line up customers - in order to move technology out of the labs and into the marketplace. Doing so when the market is experiencing a glut of solar panels simply lowers the startups' survival rates. Solyndra, which also made CIGS solar panels, suffered a high-profile death last year when it was ramping up production and realizing it couldn't compete against companies that were able to sell solar panels far more cheaply.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-demise-of-yet-another-thin-film-solar-

The demise of yet another thin film solar maker

The lights are apparently out for yet another thin film solar startup. Global Solar Energy, which was building a business around flexible solar panels, is laying off nearly all of its employees and stopping its manufacturing operation, according to Inside Tucson Business.

The Arizona-based company developed ultra-thin solar panels using the materials copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) to convert sunlight into electricity. Venture-backed Global Solar initially sold strings of CIGS solar cells to companies that would then assemble those strings into panels. Around 2009, the company said it would focus on making flexible solar panels that forgo the use of glass as a protective cover.

Flexible panels could be a good fit for roofs that can't bear heavy weight, or they could be shaped to resemble - or become embedded in - roofing materials. But foregoing the use of glass meant Global Solar had to find another way to protect the CIGS from its chief enemy: moisture. Companies such as 3M in recent years have rolled out protective films for moisture-sensitive solar cells, but those encapsulants tend to be expensive. A Global Solar executive told me last year that the company had found a good barrier film for its CIGS cells, though he declined to divulge its cost or maker.

Global Solar's star seemed to be rising when it started to work with Dow Chemical to create roofing shingles with its CIGS cells inside. Partnering with a large company meant Global Solar could lean on Dow to help promote its technology. But Dow delayed the launch of roofing shingles, especially given the home construction market was in poor health following the mortgage crisis. Dow finally launched the solar shingle product about a year ago in Colorado. It then began selling them in California and Texas earlier this year.

Global Solar had factories in Tucson and Germany. By Arizona law the company had to notify the state when it was planning any meaningful layoffs. It filed a notice in July about letting go nearly 40 employees. A Global Solar employee told Inside Tucson Business that the company was laying off about 95.

Global Solar appears to be a casualty of an imbalance of supply and demand that has persisted for two years and knocked out dozens of solar manufacturers worldwide. Major solar panel makers, including Suntech Power, First Solar and SunPower, all have shuttered production lines and posted losses as a result. Suntech recently announced its plan to scale back production and lay off about 50 employees at its Arizona factory.

Startups have had a harder time toughening it out because they typically lack the financial strength of their larger rivals. Most often times they need to be in an expansion mode - to build factories and line up customers - in order to move technology out of the labs and into the marketplace. Doing so when the market is experiencing a glut of solar panels simply lowers the startups' survival rates. Solyndra, which also made CIGS solar panels, suffered a high-profile death last year when it was ramping up production and realizing it couldn't compete against companies that were able to sell solar panels far more cheaply.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-demise-of-yet-another-thin-film-solar-maker/

A startup aims to crank up solar power with efficient materials

Raising money for solar technology manufacturing is tough these days. But a startup called Malachite Technologies hopes to break through with an idea to design equipment that can make a solar cell using super efficient semiconductor materials that can boost the solar energy generation of a panel.

The company pitched a hybrid solar cell concept and at the western regional Cleantech Open event last Friday (winners are announced today), and won over judges in the renewable energy category. The Cleantech Open will hold its national competition in San Jose next month.

The ultra efficient semiconductor materials are in the III-V family, and each III-V cell will sit on top of a silicon cell. Silicon is found in most of the solar cells on the market today, and the most efficient among them, made by SunPower, can convert 24 percent of the sunlight into electricity.

Malachite plans to stack a silicon layer with a gallium-arsenide layer to create a cell that should theoretically be able to achieve 38 percent efficiency, said Robert Weiss of Malachite during the pitch to the judges. Weiss was the former CTO of DayStar Technologies, which makes ultra thin solar panels using copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS).

The III-V cells are less common because their materials and manufacturing process are more expensive. The cells are usually made with a combination of materials such as indium, gallium, germanium and arsenic. These cells are typically found in solar panels that are equipped with lenses to concentrate sunlight onto the cells to boost their energy production. Using the optical booster means the cells themselves could be far smaller, which then reduces the overall equipment and production cost. The most efficient III-V cell, made in the lab and not subject to any concentration, has achieved nearly 30 percent efficiency.

As with many solar cell technologies, the scientific concept Weiss presented isn’t new. The big challenge is to design the process and equipment to not only produce the desired efficient cells but to also produce them in large quantities at low costs. That last part is what has stumbled many solar technology startups such as the now bankrupted Solyndra and Abound Solar over the past year, especially when they were trying to scale up production at a time when there was a bumper crop of solar panels in the market and much larger rivals were able to cut prices and take losses.

Not a cell maker

Malachite doesn’t want to sell solar cells. Instead, it wants to sell the factory equipment for making those cells, perhaps to silicon solar cell makers. The III-V cells usually are made in a process called metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), which is expensive and slow. Weiss proposes to use the physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, or sputtering, that knocks loose atoms from semiconductor materials and attach them to a substrate to form a cell. PVD has been used for making CIGS thin films.

Weiss wants to raise up to $2 million to engineer and show a workable cell design. After that, the startup will likely need $10 million to assemble the equipment to complete a prototype cell. Another $30 million should enable Malachite to deliver beta equipment to customers for testing, Weiss said.

Catching investors’ interest will be difficult these days. Many solar cell and panel makers have built up huge factories, some at gigawatt-scale, only to find that demand isn’t there yet. Some of the top 10 solar manufacturers, including Suntech Power and First Solar, have scaled back production or postponed factory expansion plans. Many have filed for bankruptcy, including veterans such as Q-Cells, which is being sold to Korea-based Hanwha Group.

GTM Research released a report on Tuesday that is projecting that 180 solar panel makers will disappear all together or get bought by 2015, and nearly half of them will close factories in places with high manufacturing costs, such as the U.S., Europe and Canada.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/a-solar-startup-aims-to-crank-up-solar-power-with-efficient-materials/