The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutCSURF RESEARCH CAMPUS - ODP - 4-04B - REPORTS -C J 30A I The northern Colorado Business www.ncbr ' Aug. 31- Sept.13, 201 Power to save lives By Tom Hacker thacker@ncbr.com Two billion people in the world live with- out electricity. Many of them light their homes with kerosene lamps that emit toxins that cause respiratory diseases and shorten lifespans. Those realities fuel the passion that guides W.S. Sampath, a Colorado State Uni- versity mechanical engineering professor who is the principal inventor of the technolo- gy that AVA Solar Inc. will bring to the mar- ket. Distributing the AVA product to families in developing nations is his top priority. An AVA-produced solar generating panel, combined with a battery and two LED lamps, can replace the deadly kerosene lanterns for a cost of about $60. "I have already done 100 homes myself," Sampath said. "These are very small huts, each about the size of an average kitchen in the U.S." Once AVA swings into full production, Sampath plans to enlist nonprofit relief orga- nizations as a distribution network for the lighting systems. "I know of volunteer organizations that can take as many as 100,000 systems to places they're needed," he said. He is also working on financing for a sep- arate AVA arm devoted specifically to the task of spreading the technology to where it is most critically needed. "The Gates Foundation is a good possibil- ity," he said, referring to the philanthropic agency funded by billionaire software entre- preneur Bill Gates. "We have made those con nections, and we're hopeful. AVA, from 1A have fended off a purchase offer from industrial giant General Electric Co., in part to maintain control of their product and keep it close to home. Land swap key The linchpin of AVA's leap to commer- cialization is the land deal that makes the Prospect/I-25 intersection available to CSU for establishing a renewable energy research center with AVA as its principal anchor. "This will be the largest new primary employer in Northern Colorado in the past two decades," said Hunt Lambert, CSU's associate vice president for economic development. "Getting one of these compa- nies out of the labs and into production is a very, very tricky thing to do. But here they are." The three research partners who found- ed AVA, W.S. Sampath, Kurt Barth and Al Enzenroth, this summer were granted a patent on the manufacturing equipment that could well launch the company to the forefront of the ultra -competitive solar power market. A sparkling new production line, now operating at the company's leased space near the southeast corner of I-25 and Mul- berry Street, will be replicated at least five- fold in the plant the company plans to open next year. The core technology is thin-film deposi- tion on glass, a process that is vastly cheap- er than building photovoltaic generating cells from crystalline silicon, the material that is also the foundation of the semicon- ductor industry. With a chemical compound called cad- mium telluride as the prime ingredient, the manufacturing process builds an ultra -thin i C%1IKAQACD CAI G Tom Harker, Northern Colorado P' ^ess n SUNSHINE BOYS — In their Colorado State University laboratory two years ago, cofounders of AVA Solar from left, Al Enzenroth, Kurt Barth and W.S. Sampath and graduate intern Tushar Shimpi display a 16-inch sc solar panel that will generate electricity at a lower cost than coal, natural gas or any other conventiona source. layer on the glass within an enclosed, auto- mated chamber that moves the panels through a 22-step process. What emerges are gray -green, 16-inch squares, each of which can produce as much electricity as two tons of coal burning at a power plant. First Solar first out An industry competitor with sir cadmium -based technology, Arizona-b First Solar Inc., is already producing generators at a plant in Germany — he subsidized by the German governmer and plans to open another in Malaysia. i-yield checking local banks of 6 percent eal, not just an ductory offer ,2A ro Palmer buys try Building ist and family and portfolio with Collins landmark le 3A w option for lack incubator space t Collins, Jensen alks for solution to dity issues le 3A iter district adds eters to wells ril 200B deadline, 2M price tag for 00 South Platte wells ge 3A lit Uty of tort IAillit5 2n1 li MINE AJE FORT M06, CO 8c 4 24t14 How-to Guide Annua' forkeeping, the bvsinesS � e^r Sefton 8 Sun shines on solar startup New plant, 500 new jobs in store for AVA Solar Inc. By Tom hacker thacker@ncbr.com .FORT COLLINS - With the promise of at least7500 manufactur- ing jobs next year, and the potential to change the global energy econo- my. forever, a Colorado State Uni- versity -bred solar power startup is about to burst into the commercial marketplace. AVA Solar Inc. will build a plant at least 70,000 square feet in size that will turn ordinary sheet glass into solar power generators that likely will undercut the cost of coal, natural gas and any other conven- tional fuel for generating electricity.. The company's preferred loca- tion is a land parcel at the southwest quadrant of Interstate 25 and Prospect Road. A land swap for the parcel owned by Fort Collins is now under negotiation between the city and CSU. AVA is in the home stretch of a successful trial of its manufacturing process, the critical component in its race against other solar energy competitors for a worldwide energy market. "We've now tied up all the loose ends and, in my mind, this company is on its way," said Pascal Noronha, the company s CEO since joining the AVA founders earlier this year. `We are not just being euphoric. My tech- nology background gives me confi- dence that, over time, we're going to be a much bigger company." In the two years since the three founders of the company perfected the process of converting window glass into solar generators, they See AVA, 30A