News

26 August 2009

 

Sunovia and EPIR expanding R&D and pilot manufacturing facility

Sunovia Energy Technologies Inc of Sarasota, FL, which is commercializing cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells, and its partner EPIR Technologies Inc of Bolingbrook, IL (in which Sunovia has a stake) are to expand their R&D and pilot production facilities in Bolingbrook to allow them to begin optimizing their high-efficiency, low-cost CdTe-on-silicon (CdTe/Si) concentrated photovoltaic devices (prior to starting pilot-scale production there).

The firms have also expanded their materials synthesis and device fabrication facility to 26,000 square feet, including 4000 square feet of cleanroom laboratory space. The expanded facility also houses R&D and engineering staff, which has doubled over the past year.

EPIR is currently servicing more than 20 governmental contracts (worth more than $20m), including contracts with the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the Missile Defense Agency.

Sunovia and EPIR (a developer of II-VI materials and devices for infrared sensor and imaging in applications including night-vision, missile tracking and space exploration) partnered in January 2008 to commercialize a novel approach to photovoltaics that takes advantage of EPIR’s expertise in growing high-quality, single-crystal layers of CdTe on silicon.

EPIR was founded in 1998 by chairman & CEO Dr Siva Sivananthan, who pioneered mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) on silicon infrared technology for night vision. The firm uses molecular beam epitaxy to produce single- and multiple-element focal plane array IR detectors, which are supplied with packaged detector/cooler assemblies. For solar applications, by producing a very high-efficiency CdTe/Si photovoltaic cell and concentrating the sunlight that strikes it by up to 500 times its normal intensity, a much greater amount of electricity can be produced in a given area and at a lower cost than traditional photovoltaics, the firms say.

“This expanded laboratory and pilot production space will accelerate our already fast-paced R&D efforts. Both our facility expansion and R&D progress are at least 12 months ahead of schedule,” says Sivananthan. “In preparation for our first CdTe/Si product, we have designed this facility in a manner that will allow us to transition into pilot production using the same space and equipment,” he adds. “By basing our concentrator solar cells on silicon instead of germanium, as is the norm for the high-efficiency III-V concentrator cells produced today, we can use production equipment that the integrated circuit industry has spent years and hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars optimizing.”

“By leveraging the infrared materials and sensor expertise within EPIR Technologies, we have not only expedited the commercialization process for the high-efficiency solar wafers, but have done it at a drastically reduced development cost,” comments Sunovia’s chairman & CEO Carl Smith. “The solar modules that we are commercializing are among the most efficient in the world, and can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost of other solar cells,” he claims. “In addition to the solar wafers, EPIR has completed the expansion of its infrared manufacturing capabilities, which has allowed us to aggressively pursue additional customers on the night vision side of the business.”

See related items:

Second DOE contract for Sunovia/EPIR targets IR detectors

DOE selects EPIR/Sunovia’s CdTe-on-Si PV technology

Sunovia and EPIR win $9m SBIR award from DoD

Sunovia finalizes $33m order for EPIR’s MWIR wafers

Search: Sunovia EPIR CdTe/Si

Visit: www.sunoviaenergy.com

Visit: www.epir.com