Konarka Technologies

These materials, as well as positive and negative electrodes made from metallic inks, could be inexpensively spread over a sheet of plastic using printing and coating machines to make solar cells, using roll-to-roll manufacturing, similar to how newspaper is printed on large rolls of paper. Konarka’s manufacturing process enabled production to scale easily and results in significantly reduced costs over previous generations of solar cells.

. Richard Hess, Konarka's president and CEO, said that the company's ability to use existing equipment allowed it to scale up production at one-tenth the cost compared with conventional technologies.

Unlike conventional solar cells, which were packaged in modules made of glass and aluminum and were rigid and heavy, Konarka's solar cells were lightweight and flexible. This made them attractive for portable applications. What was more, they could be designed in a range of colors, which made them easier to incorporate attractively into certain applications. One of the first products to use Konarka's cells was to be briefcases that could recharge laptops. Another company was testing Konarka's solar cells for use in umbrellas for outdoor tables at restaurants. They could also be used in tents and awnings.

Because the solar cells could be made transparent, Konarka was also developing a version of its solar cells that could be laminated to windows to generate electricity and serve as a window tinting.

However, the technology had several drawbacks. The solar cells only lasted a couple of years, unlike the decades that conventional solar cells last and the solar cells were relatively inefficient. Conventional solar cells can easily convert 15 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity; Konarka's cells only converted up to 8.3%, the highest certified efficiency that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory had recorded for organic photovoltaic cells by that time.

Flexible batteries

Konarka owned the rights to an organic-based solar-recharging flexible battery technology. However, as of April 2007, Konarka had no plans to produce these commercially itself.

Flexible batteries have thin-solar cells which are held inside a flexible gas barrier to prevent them from degrading when exposed to air. At just two grams in weight and just one millimetre thick, the flexible battery is small enough to be used in low-wattage gadgets - including flat smart cards and mobile phones. The potential for this type of product was seen as large, given that there was a growing demand for portable self-rechargeable power supplies.

Production

Dye-sensitized solar cells

Konarka Technologies and Renewable Capital announced the licensing and joint development of Konarka's dye-sensitized solar cell technology for large-scale production, scaling to several hundred megawatts.

Polymer-fullerene solar cells

Konarka opened a commercial-scale factory, with the capacity to produce enough polymer-fullerene solar cells every year to generate one gigawatt of electricity, the equivalent of a large nuclear reactor. The company planned to gradually ramp up production at its new factory, reaching full capacity in two to three years.