FEDS PROMOTE NEW SOLAR

Solar technology gets White House boost
Mark Jewell, March 8, 2007) AP via Yahoo News)
- …President Bush 's program to help solar energy compete with conventional electricity sources will help fund Konarka Technologies' development of flexible plastic solar cell strips — material that could be embedded into the casings of laptop computers and even woven into power-producing clothing to energize digital media players or other electronics.

- The technology, which received its first Pentagon funding three years ago, offers a lightweight, flexible alternative to conventional rigid photovoltaic cells on glass panels.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is scheduled…to announce funding from Bush's Solar America Initiative…Konarka [is] a six-year-old private company that has attracted nearly $60 million in venture capital funding...[and] nearly $10 million in grant money to date from U.S. and European governments includes funding from the Pentagon to supply lightweight portable battery chargers and material for tents to draw power from sunlight.
Chief Executive Howard Berke said the new White House support is a milestone…
- The first commercial product using Konarka's technology isn't expected to hit the market until next year, and the company isn't saying what that product might be…

- Konarka's development of plastic solar cell strips that can be manufactured like rolls of photographic film "has the promise of becoming a low-cost manufacturing technique," said Jeffrey Bencik, a Jefferies & Co. analyst who follows the solar industry… "But can they mass-produce it and get the same result?"
- …Konarka is "definitely doing the best job at developing what ultimately will have to be a mass-manufactured material," said Dan Nocera, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemistry professor…it remains to be seen whether Konarka's so-called "Power Plastic" is sufficiently chemically stable to convert energy efficiently both when light is dim and when it's bright.
- Konarka, which takes its name from an ancient temple in India dedicated to the sun god Surya, was founded by Berke and Alan Heeger, who shared the 2000 Nobel Chemistry prize for showing that certain plastics can be made to conduct electricity…

- Konarka developed low-cost plastics that could be used as the top and bottom surfaces of the photovoltaic cell…
- Konarka says its material is lightweight and flexible so that it can be colored, patterned and cut to fit almost any device…to provide power on the go. Clothing could be woven with the material to supply power for handheld electronics, and signboards, traffic lights and rooftops could be fitted with solar strips.
- Berke foresees wide use of such technology in the developing world and areas off the electrical grid…