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Organic photovoltaics developer Konarka Technologies has converted a former Polaroid advanced printing plant into what it calls the world's largest roll-to-roll flexible thin-film solar manufacturing facility. The 250,000 square-foot factory, located in New Bedford, MA, will be used for the commercialization and volume production of the company's Power Plastic product line. 

"This facility has state-of-the-art printing capabilities that are ready for full operation, with the future potential to produce over a gigawatt of flexible plastic solar modules per year," said Howard Berke, executive chairman and cofounder of Konarka. "Our technical leadership and innovation in flexible thin-film solar, along with this facility’s capabilities of producing in excess of 10 million square meters of material per year, will allow us to produce Power Plastic for indoor, portable, outdoor, and building-integrated applications." 

Built and further expanded in the 1990s for Polaroid's advanced technology development and large-scale manufacturing, the OPV firm's new facility has been retrofitted to immediately begin initial production of Power Plastic. Using multiple in-line processing stations with precision multilayer manufacturing processes that are adaptable to a variety of printing and coating technologies, the facility will enable the company to further develop and advance nano-enabled polymer photovoltaic materials that are lightweight, flexible and more versatile than traditional solar materials.

In addition to acquiring the fully automated roll-to-roll manufacturing line, the company has also hired the leading technology and process engineering teams from Polaroid, with plans to hire more than 100 additional employees as production increases toward capacity over the next two to three years.

Based in Lowell, MA, with operations in Germany, Austria, and Asia, Konarka has secured over $100 million from leading venture capital and private equity funds, as well as $18 million in government agency research grants from the U.S. and Europe--including awards from the Solar America Initiative.

-- Tom Cheyney