Fueling the future: Tech powers Southeast’s first solar cell manufacturer

Rick Robinson
Research News

	Photograph by Gary Meek Suniva founder, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Ajeet Rohatgi, holds a 6-by-6 inch “pseudo-square” solar cell.

Using technology developed at Georgia Tech, Suniva Inc. has become the first solar cell manufacturer in the Southeast. The company is making high-efficiency crystalline-silicon photovoltaic cells around the clock at a 73,000-square-foot facility in Norcross, north of Atlanta.

Moreover, Suniva expects to expand quickly. Using technology based on the research of Regents’ Professor Ajeet Rohatgi, the company is presently manufacturing its ARTisun solar cells at a rate of 32 megawatts (MW) annually. Since an average U.S. home requires about five kilowatts of power, Suniva’s present annual output can furnish enough solar cells to supply about 6,300 homes, Rohatgi says.

Suniva plans to ramp up to an annual solar-cell output of nearly 100 MW—enough to power about 19,000 homes. The company currently employs about 70 people and expects to add more staff as it grows.

A solar cell contains several layers, and every layer plays a role in the cell’s overall efficiency. Rohatgi, who also runs the University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has studied solar cells in depth for some 30 years, learning how to optimize each layer to get maximum output—at the least cost.

“We want to be right at the sweet spot,” said Rohatgi, who is both Suniva’s founder and chief technology officer. “We want cells that are highly efficient but low in cost, and that can generate power at a cost comparable to the power you buy from the electric company.”
Rohatgi’s solar-cell research has received significant funding over many years from the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Suniva is a shining example of how government support for research can lead to very real job creation,” said Robert Knotts, director of Federal Relations at Tech. “It’s a strong reminder of why we should invest in research.”

Suniva’s current solar-cell output falls in the 17- to 18-percent efficiency range, which Rohatgi classifies as high, especially in a lower-cost cell. But the company is continuing to improve its technology, and recently the National Renewable Energy Laboratory certified a new Suniva cell and cell structure at 20 percent efficiency, generally considered very high.

Suniva is a graduate of VentureLab, a Tech program supported by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) to foster young companies based on commercially promising research. In early 2008, Suniva joined the Advanced Technology Development Center, the Institute’s science and technology incubator.

VentureLab is part of Commercialization Services, a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute. Commercialization Services’ work involves identifying, evaluating and promoting Tech research discoveries that show commercial promise.

To date, Suniva has received total funding of $55.5 million from several venture capital organizations, including Menlo Park, Calif.-based New Enterprise Associates. Even more significant, Suniva now has contracts worth more than $1 billion through 2013, with more agreements expected.

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