Solexant gears up pilot production line for customer trials

San Jose, Calif.-based Solexant considers itself somewhat in stealth mode. But the company unveiled details to the Cleantech Group about its unique photovoltaic technology, considered a significant technological breakthrough, which it says helps to increase solar cell efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs.

The company makes an ultra-thin flexible material being used to produce solar panels that deliver electricity to the grid without subsidy. Described as third-generation photovoltaic, this nanocrystal solar cell allows high-volume, continuous production of the panels.

CEO and serial entrepreneur Damoder Reddy said the printing is done in a roll-to-roll fashion. Using high efficiency materials and low-cost manufacturing, the company says it has been able to achieve cost savings of 50 percent compared to other solar technologies.

Reddy founded the now 40-employee company in 2006, based on semiconductor nanocrystal technology it licensed and has since improved upon, out of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The company's scientific advisory board includes nanocrystal experts such as Paul Alivisatos, who was appointed director of the lab earlier this month. 

The technology transfer took only three months, and Reddy said his team was able to reproduce the technology quickly, improve its efficiency, and make it commercially viable. Solexant also makes its own nanocrystals in house, he said.

The company has nearly 30 patents on its technology, many of which it has filed and others which have been licensed.

Solexant is currently seeking a $50 million Series C round of funding for a 100 megawatt commercial scale solar panel assembly line. In October, the company completed a 2 MW pilot production line in San Jose (see Startup offers clean water from a Red Bird).

Reddy said the company is in the process of transferring its technology from the lab to the pilot line, which is expected to produce commercial modules, he said.

“Sometime in 2010, we will have a small volume deployment of modules in the field,” he said.

The company is targeting solar farms, with potential customers in Europe, including an undisclosed utility. Customer evaluations are already lined up and ready to go, Reddy said.

The expectation is that the modules coming off the pilot production line will have more than 10 percent efficiency levels.

He said the company thinks when it reaches the 100 MW to 200 MW level, its modules can be manufactured at $0.50 per watt, with balance of system costs at less than $1 per watt, and total costs in the $2 per watt range.

Solexant is projected to bring in meaningful revenue in 2011, Reddy said, and it plans to manufacturer and sell its modules in the long term.

Solexant has raised two rounds of funding to date totaling $22.5 million, from investors including Trident Capital, Firelake Capital, Medley Partners, and X/Seed Capital. This included $18.2 million in Series B funding, and $4.3 million in 2007 (see $4.8B flows in cleantech sector this week and Cash shines on solar).

In September, the company made the Global Cleantech 100 list, released by the Guardian newspaper and the Cleantech Group, in the energy generation – solar category. The list highlights the most promising private cleantech companies around the world (see Surprises abound in first Global Cleantech 100 ranking).

Solexant is one of four potential new investment opportunities the Cleantech Group added to its innovation pipeline this week, available exclusively to members of the Cleantech Network. Members can click here to search the database.

Interested in emerging cleantech innovations? Here are two new international companies added to the Cleantech Group's database this week also looking for funding:

• Ireland-based City Bin International is currently seeking a $2.5 million tranche of a total $7.5 million. The company has developed a software platform that combines aspects of enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, real-time analytics, and business intelligence to manage customer service, environmental improvement, and cost performance for municipalities and waste companies. The funding is expected to be used to upgrade the platform to a software as a service (SaaS) model, improve functionality, and get two reference municipalities on board with a total of more than 100,000 end users.
• Ireland-based Bioplastech is currently seeking €5 million to €7 million ($7.5 million to $10.5 million) to build company infrastructure, scale up production, and develop unique products for various industry applications. The company develops biodegradable plastics and products from various waste sources that it says can decompose naturally in the environment for the packaging, agriculture, biomedical and injection molding markets.

Seeking capital, partners or customers? Submit to the Cleantech Group’s innovation pipeline.

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