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A small New Jersey company with big ideas for advancing solar-celltechnology has expressed interest in locating its research andmanufacturing development facilities at Rochester's Eastman BusinessPark.
Natcore Technology Inc., which hasdeveloped what it calls an innovative approach to making thin, flexiblesolar cells, is in discussions with federal officials about funding tohelp underwrite an effort to perfect and commercialize the manufacturingprocess.
Theybelieve Eastman Kodak Co., with decades of experience with thin,flexible photographic film and underused filmmaking and coatingequipment, could be an ideal host or partner.
"Probablymore important than the equipment is their expertise and technology andexperience," Natcore CEO Chuck Provini said Tuesday.
TheRed Bank, N.J., company, which currently employs 14 people, has privatefunding to open its own research lab, and may locate that at EastmanBusiness Park as well. "Who knows what's going to happen ultimately, butright now we're very inclined to do something with the laboratorythere," Provini said.
Hecredited U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, with working "veryaggressively" to encourage Natcore to consider Rochester and connect thecompany with federal officials.
Whenthe company began looking for sites for its lab and development center,it sent letters to members of Congress whose districts includedpossible sites. Slaughter was one of the first to respond, contactingthe White House, the Department of Energy and Kodak, he said.
"She has helped us dramatically," he said.
A meeting with Department of Energy officials is scheduled for later this month.
"Isee Natcore and Kodak to be an ideal fit and I'm happy to do everythingI can to bring these companies together," Slaughter said in astatement.
Themanufacturing development center would focus on finding a way tomass-produce flexible sheets of electricity-generating solar cells.Natcore officials said their process would yield solar arrays that areat least 50 percent less expensive to manufacture and easier to deploy.The development center would employ 15 to 20 people, Provini said.
If the process were commercialized, a full-scale manufacturing plant could employ hundreds, he said.
The lab, which would research several other kinds of high-efficiency solar cells, would employ about a dozen people.
Kodakspokesman Christopher Veronda declined to discuss Natcore's plans, butsaid the company is more than willing to work with such firms. He notedKodak can make the film base for another company, and has a machine setaside for experiments in high-speed film coating.
"We have this core expertise ... in putting thin films on fast-moving webs," he said.
"With the decline of our traditional business, we're trying to apply some of these assets to help other businesses."