Cheaper Solar Comes Closer

Solar startup Stellaris, which won first place in the MIT Enterprise Forum’s clean energy business plan competition this year, said Monday that it expects to launch its low-cost, high-efficiency solar modules next year.

The company has a concentrating solar technology that it said will cut the cost of solar modules by 40 percent and convert 20 percent more sunlight into electricity, compared with current solar energy systems.

Stellaris won first place in MIT’s Ignite Clean Energy Business Presentation Competition on Thursday, netting $15,000 in cash, office space worth $25,000, and legal services worth $7,500.

“Winning this competition will greatly increase our visibility with potential investors on both coasts, and for this we are grateful,” said Stellaris President Jim Paull. “It’s rewarding when a team of industry experts from energy technology companies, venture capital firms, and academic technology experts confirm that you are on the right track.”

Jonathan Klavens, chair of the judging committee and an attorney with Bernstein, Cushner & Kimmell in Boston, said judges were impressed by Stellaris’s “strong and varied” management group, among other things.

“The team did not just come in with an idea from the lab,” he said. “The team has already developed a prototype and presented a viable business plan, showing strong market need from a range of customers, from manufacturers of building materials to end-use consumers.

“Stellaris presented compelling evidence that the strong market for solar technology, coupled with shortages of quality silicon, were such that the business could take off and thrive in a reasonable time period,” he added.

The judges were also impressed with the visual aspects of the technology, and the fact that it could fit into buildings to improve the quality of life while providing energy, said Mr. Klavens.

Clean Energy in Competition

Aside from Stellaris, other Ignite winners included Solasta, another solar team; Feed Resource Recovery, which makes biomethane and fertilizer from organic waste; NatEl, which has technology to make hydropower using small dams; and Synergetic Power Systems, another concentrating solar firm.

The Ignite competition is solely intended for clean energy business plans. But clean energy technologies have also been winning accolades at other, more generalized, business plan competitions. Earlier this month, for example, Aurora BioFuels won first prize at the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition.

“I think the penny is finally dropping,” said Nicholas Parker, chairman of the Cleantech Venture Network, a cleantech industry monitor. “You’re seeing the transformation of a multitrillion-dollar market, and seeing 20 years of stuff in the lab starting to come out.”

He has noticed a parallel trend occurring as well.

“People are also seeing a social transformation, a generation of entrepreneurs who not only want to make the big pot of gold, but also want to provide a major solution to a major problem,” added Mr. Parker. “There’s a combination of zeal, savvy, engineering prowess, and a sense of being on a mission. It’s bringing out a lot of people currently in campuses, and that’s very exciting.”

Solar Concentration

Solar concentrators enhance the amount of sunlight that can be converted into electricity by solar photovoltaic cells. Most use mirrors that track the sun and direct more light into solar panels (see Solar May Get Cheaper, Energy Innovations Gets Cash, and Tech Pioneer: Bill Gross).

But there are challenges. Many concentrators have moving parts that can make them unreliable. Still, concentrating technologies have the potential to drastically reduce the cost of solar, which could help grow the market quickly once a worldwide shortage of polysilicon ends.

Formed in April 2005, Stellaris says its technology is distinguished by a lack of mirrors or moving parts.

Instead, the glazing technology uses tiny cone-shaped polycarbonate lenses to direct light into smaller amounts of photovoltaic material. A number of these lenses are combined into solar tiles, which look black when viewed straight on, but appear to be clear when viewed from an angle.

Because they are translucent, the solar panels can be used not only on rooftops, but in windows, curtain walls, and skylights, said Tom Ward, vice president of marketing and sales at Stellaris.

“Architects have been extremely interested in the architectural advantages that we have,” he said. He noted that some Boston architects are considering using the panels in school buildings.

Cost and Efficiency

With Stellaris’s technology, solar-power systems can produce the same amount of electricity as other systems, using only one-third of the photovoltaic material, according to Mr. Ward. He predicts the technology will result in an overall cost savings of about 40 percent.

Instead of crystalline solar photovoltaic cells, the concentrators use thin-film solar cells. Thin-film cells contain little or no costly polysilicon, which is especially advantageous during a polysilicon shortage (see Solar’s Going Thin).

Stellaris’s technology is compatible with any thin-film technology, according to Mr. Ward.

Mr. Parker of the Cleantech Venture Network said the technology is interesting, but added that there is a lot of competition in the space. One challenge will be getting warranties for the new technology, as thin-film cells have historically degraded more quickly than crystalline cells, he said.

“It’s a matter of taking a lab test and proving it out in the real world,” he said. “Degradation has been a problem with thin film. It’s got to be plug and play. A concentrator adds a whole new level of complexity, depending on how it’s embedded in the product.”

He believes it may take some time for Stellaris to capitalize on its recent triumph.

“It’s one thing to win a business plan competition, but there’s a lot of pilot work that’s got to be done before this is a successful company,” said Mr. Parker. “There’s a long way to go.”

Seeing Green

But Mr. Ward said Stellaris plans to bring its panels to market next year, and to be profitable by the end of 2008.

The company is now looking to raise $1.5 million in venture capital funding to “perfect” its manufacturing process, he said.

In 2007, Stellaris plans to raise another $8.5 million to commercialize its panels. The company intends to seek another $10 million or so in 2008, said Mr. Ward, to ramp up production and grow the business to full capacity.