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Corporate Website: http://www.natcoresolar.com
[Latest Presentation] (DECEMBER 2016): http://www.natcoresolar.com/core/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Natcore-GTM-Presentation-12.8.16-NRev.pdf
NatcoreTechnology
"NatcoreTechnology is a research and development company pioneering solar cells with improved efficiency and reduced cost. By combining the expertise of our scientists – who are among the most renowned in the solar community – with a well-equipped research facility, we are developing approaches that will define the next generation of cells. Our output is technology: our intellectual property is currently protected by 62 patents granted or pending. Natcore plans to move our technologies into manufacturing through partnerships that ultimately yield licensing and royalty revenue streams."
• Natcore is a dual-pronged business consisting of 1) commercialising technology (licensing, royalties, material sales) 2) international consulting for industrial scale solar facilities (Best-of-Breed Program). The company has been funded via private placement for several years back in a purely R&D phase and now looks to turn the corner with revenue generation.
Primary Technology:
Rochester, N.Y., research and development center (19,000 sf with 8,000 sf clean room)
♦ [Natcore Foil Cell] (All Back Contact Solar Cell): The cell is several technologies combined under the product name "Foil Cell". The structure uses aluminum instead of industry traditional silver, greatly reducing material costs. The patented low temperature laser process rids the need for expensive furnaces.
• Current Efficiency: 19.4% (Short term target of >20%)
• Early Phase Full Production Estimate: 22%
• Long Term Full Production Estimate: 24-26%
♦ [Black Silicon]: The black silicon technology streamlines the path to low solar cell reflectance. By reducing steps in the manufacturing process, costs are greatly reduced.
Technical Executive Summary:
"The vast majority of solar cells produced today employ front contacts—one of the cell’s electrical contacts is the familiar grid of metal lines on the front of a cell. Even though the grid lines are thin, they block light and thus reduce efficiency. These standard solar cells are also made with a thermally diffused emitter, requiring very high process temperatures (>800C). The combination of front contacts and thermally diffused emitters limit current cell efficiency to about 19%.
Recently, a 25.6% efficiency was reported – the highest efficiency ever reached for a silicon solar cell. The cell in question used only back contacts, thus blocking no light. It also used a silicon heterojunction (SHJ) emitter, eliminating high temperature diffusion steps. While the achievement showed the value of these approaches, the cell was produced using a complicated, high cost process. The goal then: produce a cell like that at low cost.
The Natcore Cell leverages laser processing and a revolutionary approach to contacting/metallizing the cell in order to drive out cost while getting to high efficiency.
Our design requires highly defined regions of heavily doped silicon in order to form the base contact of the solar cell. By using a powerful focused laser beam, small regions of the silicon surface can be melted in the presence of a specially applied dopant, allowing that dopant to penetrate the silicon matrix. In particular, Natcore scientists have discovered a method to laser-form these dopant regions while not disrupting the high quality emitter already present on the solar cell. The laser process is rapid, and can be performed in low capital equipment at atmospheric conditions.
Our approach to metallization is game changing. Silver is a staple of current solar cells, being used for its high conductivity and easy processing. However, it can represent from 30 to 50% of the fabrication cost of a solar cell. Our unique metallization approach relies upon a simple multilayer structure composed of aluminum foils. The use of aluminum alone permits great cost saving. However, there are two additional areas of cost saving with our approach. First of all, the metallization process, leveraging the worldwide volume of aluminum foil production, can have a very low capital cost and footprint. Secondly, the resulting cell architecture is ideal for subsequent incorporation into modules cheaply and with low cell-to-module (CTM) losses.
Natcore has specifically protected its laser back contacted cell approach with a number of patent filings covering the architecture, laser process, and general processing characteristics. Natcore’s rapid progress in this area is enabled by David Carlson, member of our Science Advisory Board and Charlie Gay, auxiliary scientific advisor. Both bring a recognized, extensive career in solar technology and business to the table."
♦ Natcore makes solar energy cost-competitive by increasing efficiency and lowering cost.
♦ In a solar cell industry where manufacturers are fighting for fractions of a percent improvement in performance or costs, Natcore’s new cells will offer cost/watt improvements likely well over 30% – a generational leap in performance that will essentially force adoption by the industry.
♦ Natcore will have a very quick ramp-up to significant revenues, with virtually no capital expense and margins near 100%. This is because the company’s business model calls for licensing the technology to any and all comers, earning royalties on equipment, materials and every solar cell sold using the proprietary process.
International Solar Project Consulting (Best-of-Breed):
• Provide project financing and technology;
• Design, develop, implement and bring solar plants to the turnkey phase;
• Serve as supplier and promoter of the project;
• Select suppliers, PV plant locations and EPC company
Projects in the Pipeline
♦ Belize: 10MW
♦ Australia: 30MW
♦ Vietnam 200MW (Multi Phase With State Party Interest in Manufacturing Facility)
♦ Middle East 1,000MW
♦ South Africa
♦ Ukraine/Moldova
♦ Philippines
Vietnam - Phase 1: 56.18MW (December 2016 Presentation)
Drone Aerial Image of Land
Project:
• Total Investment: $65.5 Million
• PPA: $0.112 kWh
• Average Yearly Revenue: $9.3M (Recurring for 20 Years)
Estimated Fees to Natcore:
56.18MW - Phase 1
• Engagement Fee:$1.5M
• Cost Plus $3.25M
• Annual Partnership Participation (10%) 20 Year Term: $18.6M
200MW - All Phases
• Engagement Fee:$6.0M
• Cost Plus $13M
• Annual Partnership Participation (10%) 20 Year Term: $74.4M
Natcore’s Scientific Staff:
Current and auxiliary advisory members boast some of the world’s top experts and authorities in photovoltaics, highlighted by:
Dr. David Levy (Director of Research & Technology)
Dr. Levy earned his BSE in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in Chemical Engineering, with a minor in Electrical Engineering, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He invented the atmospheric Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition process (SALD) while he was a Senior Research Scientist at Eastman Kodak, where he spent 20 years. With primary applications in the semiconductor industry, SALD is now a recognized area of research in the atomic layer deposition community.
While working with air-free synthesis of nanoparticles, Dr. Levy also gained familiarity with quantum dot systems. The ability to create a three dimensional matrix of quantum dots is a critical step toward the formation of a fully functioning tandem cell, a principal goal of Natcore scientists.
Dr. Levy has been granted 90 patents and has authored 11 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has been an invited presenter at meetings of the Materials Research Society and the American Vacuum Society.
Dr. Dennis Flood (former Chief of Photovolatic and Space Environments Branch, NASA)
Dennis Flood, PhD, is a Natcore co-founder. He has more than 30 years’ experience in developing solar cell and array technology for both space and terrestrial applications. At the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, he served for 15 years as Chief of the Photovoltaic and Space Environments Branch and led programs in advanced photovoltaic systems development.
Dr. Charlie Gay (former Director of U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab, president of Applied Solar at Applied Materials, chairman of technical advisory board of Sunpower)
He has 41 years of professional management, manufacturing and advanced technology experience in renewable energy and photovoltaics. He created the Greenstar Foundation, which delivers solar power and Internet access for health, education and microenterprise projects to villages in developing countries.
Dr. Gay has been president and chief operating officer of ASE Americas; chairman of the technical advisory board at SunPower Corporation; president of Applied Solar and chairman of the Applied Solar Council at Applied Materials, Inc; and president of ARCO Solar.
Charlie Gay received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside, and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the same institution. He holds numerous patents for solar cell and module construction and is a winner of the Gold Medal for Achievement from the World Renewable Energy Congress. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering for his seminal leadership contributions to the development of the global solar PV industry.
Dr. David Carlson (former Chief Scientist for BP Solar and inventor of the amorphous silicon solar cell)
Dr. Carlson is a physicist with a worldwide reputation in photovoltaics and materials science. Until his recent retirement, he was the chief scientist of BP Solar, for whom he managed future technology programs and the intellectual property system.
In 1974, Dr. Carlson invented the amorphous silicon solar cell at RCA Laboratories, and was the first to demonstrate that hydrogenated amorphous silicon could be doped either p- or n-type and could be used to form a semiconductor junction. He has been Group Head, Photovoltaic Device Research, at RCA Labs; and Vice President and Director of Research of the Thin Film Division of Solarex Corp.
Dr. Carlson is a fellow of the IEEE and has been a member of the American Physical Society, the American Vacuum Society, and Sigma Xi. He has published more than 150 technical papers, has been issued 26 U.S. patents, and has 8 patents pending. He’s listed in Who’s Who in America. Dr. Carlson received a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in Physics from Rutgers University.
Filings:
U.S. SEC: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001464623&owner=exclude&count=40&hidefilings=0
SEDAR: http://www.sedar.com/DisplayProfile.do?lang=EN&issuerType=03&issuerNo=00026055
NATCORE TECHNOLOGY INC.FILINGS & PUBLIC DOCUMENTS with SEDARShare Structure 9/1/16
Shares Outstanding 61,939,302
Warrants Outstanding 23,657,302
Options Outstanding 5,540,000
Shares Outstanding Fully Diluted 91,136,872
Press Coverage:
ABC NEWS: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/03/absolute-black-solar-panels-absorb-almost-all-sunlight/
ABC NEWS: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/american-company-takes-solar-technology-china-10935609 <-- Worth a watch but Natcore did not end up doing business in China for concern over intellectual property ownership
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/business/global/18research.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
