A report from Canaccord Capital.
Shares of Natcore Technology, the junior company hoping to bridge the economic gap between solar power and conventional energy production – an achievement that represents the "Holy Grail" of the alternative energy industry, jumped after announcing that it has shipped sample wafers demonstrating the unique advantages of its Liquid Phase Deposition (LPD) process to potential customers in the solar industry.
The company also reported that its program at Rice University has achieved a significant milestone, having successfully manufactured silicon nanocrystals (quantum dots) of sufficient quality and suitable characteristics for use in its tandem solar cell research. This is an important advance toward the company's goal of developing low-cost, super-efficient silicon cells with efficiencies of over 30%, or about twice the power output of today's most efficient mass-produced solar cells.
Two other accomplishments highlighted in Thursday's press release included: i) Natcore's team at Nanotech West at the Ohio State University (OSU) has performed a series of process improvement experiments over the past three months, in anticipation of transferring the process to the "Natcore China" joint venture company.
This is a very important step in the company's plan, as it will allow the team in China to come quickly up to speed in exactly replicating the process developed at OSU; ii) Natcore's team has developed a prototype engineering design for the scaled process at the Natcore China JV, and begun design of an automated, manufacturing-scale system; and iii) Natcore's program at Rice University has achieved a significant milestone, having successfully manufactured silicon nanocrystals of sufficient quality and suitable characteristics for use in its tandem solar cell research. This is an important advance toward the company's goal of developing low-cost, super-efficient silicon cells with efficiencies of over 30%, or about twice the power output of today's most efficient mass-produced solar cells.
