Natcore Technology Inc (NTCXF)

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News today:

Natcore plans to acquire Vanguard Solar

2010-03-31 08:41 ET - News Release

Mr. Charles Provini reports

NATCORE TECHNOLOGY ENLARGES SOLAR SCIENCE PORTFOLIO WITH ACQUISITION OF VANGUARD SOLAR

One month after announcing the formation of a joint venture in China to produce equipment and materials for use in making solar cells, Natcore Technology Inc. has executed a letter of intent to purchase Vanguard Solar Inc., a private firm controlling key intellectual property in the field of solar energy. The closing of the transaction is subject to the completion of due diligence and mutually agreeable legal documentation.

Vanguard has been focused on the development of a flexible, thin-film photovoltaic material capable of silicon solar cell-like efficiency performance potentially at one-10th the manufacturing cost and one-20th the capital investment.

Vanguard employs a proprietary chemical bath process similar to Natcore's liquid phase deposition (LPD) technology, although Vanguard is growing II-VI compound semiconductor thin films on carbon nanotubes at room temperature and ambient pressure, while Natcore has thus far concentrated on growing silicon dioxide films on silicon substrates.

The first-generation products from Vanguard's method could produce 15%-16% efficiencies at module costs of 60 cents to 70 cents per watt. It is anticipated that second-generation technology could achieve 20% efficiencies at even lower costs per watt. The investment for production facilities is projected as low as $10 million to $15 million per 100-megawatt to 150-megawatt production capability, as compared with current costs of as much as $250 million for standard solar-cell production facilities. Vanguard's production equipment would be designed for insertion into an existing roll-to-roll film-coating line of the sort that has been displaced by the emergence of digital photography.

All production materials are widely available and dramatically cheaper than silicon and other thin film systems. If successfully developed, the process would enable a very cost-efficient production capability in large-scale facilities.



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