message from presidentMessage from the President
Dear XXXXX,
Albert Einstein said “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
Ifyou’ve noticed our steady stream of news releases lately, then you knowthat we’ve been chopping like crazy. Our progress is not criminal,however. Instead, we are obsessively driven toward making solar energycost-competitive with energy produced by fossil fuels. To that end, weare simultaneously developing three applications, all based on ourLiquid Phase Deposition process.
· Antireflective Coating/Black Silicon
· Roll to Roll Flexible Solar Cells
· Quantum Dot Tandem Solar Cells
Here’s a recap of our recent progress:
Natcore R&D Center.Our private placement, completed in December, has allowed us toconsolidate our R & D work at the Eastman Business Park inRochester, NY. This decision enables us to utilize Kodak resources thatare already in place so we can begin our R&D Center with little orno capital expenditures on equipment. Additionally, the Kodak HumanResources department will help us with staffing.
Our initial Intelligent AR Processing System,a very sophisticated piece of equipment that grows an antireflective(AR) coating on silicon wafers in the process of becoming solar cells, willbe delivered to our clean room at Kodak so we can make adjustments andrefinements before building a second machine. This very sophisticatedpiece of equipment will allow us to measure the precise thickness of thecoating on the wafers while they are in the liquid deposition bath.We’re sending the second AR coating tool to TLNZ, the Chinesemanufacturer, who upon successful testing, will buy it.
Black Silicon.We will also integrate our successes in coating black silicon into thisAR process. We feel our coating will allow the black silicon process tobe commercialized — something that has not been achieved to date — andcould increase efficiencies on existing cells by 1% to 2% all by itself.That alone would be a very substantial improvement. It is our plan tointegrate this black silicon process into our LPD antireflective processmerely by adding additional tubs to our intelligent processing system.
Nanostructured thin-film solar cell. Perhapsone of the biggest benefits of our consolidation at Kodak would be ouraccess to their extensive experience in coating a variety of thin filmson a variety of surfaces at high speed. We feel that by integrating ourtechnology, specifically the recently issued patent for nanostructedsolar cells, with Kodak’s experience and equipment, we will be able todevelop a flexible thin-film solar panel that could reduce the cost tomanufacture solar panels by over 50%, to less than 50¢/watt.
Itis this process that motivated the White House to try to help us findfunding. We are still in contact with them and have been directed tovarious government agencies to try to obtain the funding needed to bringthis technology to commercialization. We have entertained interest andpotential offers from other countries, but we are anxious to exhaustpotential sources in the United States before we go elsewhere.
Tandem solar cells.Nothing has taken our focus away from quantum dot tandem solar cells.Although we continue the joint research agreement with Rice Universityand Professor Andrew Barron. we will also make tandem cells a focus ofour programs in Rochester to move it along more quickly. We have hadsuccess in growing the quantum dots; coating them; and creating instill-rough fashion the types of arrays that would be required for thismulti-junction device. We hope to have an early-stage proof-of-concepttandem device within months. While such a device would be far from afull-fledged product, it would be an important achievement nonetheless.
Ihope this update helps you understand the significance of all ourrecent news, and how it all relates to our progress. In short, while weare very excited about our important scientific achievements andbusiness opportunities, we remain sharply focused on achieving revenuesin the near term while advancing the technologies that promise to makesolar energy commercially viable on a stand-alone basis.