Solexant Corporation will bring its ultrathin-film photovoltaic technology to Oregon with its new commercial-scale nanocrystal solar manufacturing plant in the city of Gresham. The company will initially use an existing 100,000-square-foot to 150,000-square-foot building to house the 100-megawatt solar manufacturing plant before constructing a new facility in 2011. Once completed, the factory will be the first thin-film solar manufacturing plant in Oregon and the largest nanotechnology facility in the world.
Construction of the manufacturing facility will be backed by $64 million in equity funding that the company has collected to date. This includes $41.5 million raised in a financing round led by Olympus Capital Partners, DBL Investors and Birchmere Ventures.
Solexant also borrowed $25 million from Oregon Department of Energy’s loan program and received an $18.75 million business energy tax credit from the state energy department to support the construction of the solar manufacturing plant.
The company expects to employ 200 local workers for the plant, with 97 confirmed green jobs under the business energy tax credit agreement.
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“This investment will mean jobs immediately for Oregonians with the promise of more in the future,” said Ted Kulongoski, state governor of Oregon.
“In addition, this company brings a new technological facet to Oregon’s already booming solar manufacturing base and will help us continue to be a global leader in solar manufacturing,” he added.
Developed at the United States Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Solexant’s printable nanocrystal technology platform features a proprietary roll-to-roll printing process that uses nanocrystal inks to manufacture flexible thin-film solar cells.
California-based Solexant will use the printing method to produce the solar industry’s first nanocrystal ultrathin-film solar cell by printing cadmium telluride nanocrystals on a flexible substrate.
“As Oregon’s first thin-film solar manufacturing plant, the Gresham facility will prove the commercial application of our nanocrystal ultrathin-film solar cell technology in a very capital-efficient way,” said Damoder Reddy, chief executive of Solexant.
