Lighting up the world: Suniva tackles solar power - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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“I personally believe that PV is a technology that can simultaneously solve two of the most importan problems we havetoday — one is energy and the othere is the environment,” Rohatgi “The only thing left is to make it and that is our To do that, Rohatgi — with the help and advice of a group of investors in 2007 spun off from Georgiaz Tech, launching Suniva Inc. The Norcross-based company’e aim is to commercializew Rohatgi’s groundbreaking research.
With backinhg from venture capitalfirm (NEA) and nine patents under his belt, Rohatgi set out to bringt solar efficiency at a low cost to solar panel manufacturers around the For his trailblazing efforts in the field of solarf energy, Rohatgi and start-up company Suniva are the recipients of Atlantaz Business Chronicle’s 2009 Envention Award, given to a new producrt developed by an Atlanta company orindividual that exhibits outstandingenvironmentalk or green benefits. New Enterprise Associates’ Harryt Weller says his firm is excitedabout Suniva’sw potential and its proprietary technology.
“When NEA started looking at solare companies toinvest in, everyone pointed to Ajeetr Rohatgi as ‘the guy’ we needed to speak to in says Weller, NEA general partner and a Sunivwa board member. “His reputation as the sector’se top researcher became very clear and the quality of the innovations cominh out of his labs atGeorgisa Tech, the first DOE Center of Excellence in was legendary in the field.” (Suniva has already scored a coup, coming to terms with developef to supply solar cells to the developer’s Aerotropolies Atlanta, a planned 130-acre mixed-use redevelopment of the formetr Hapeville Ford plant south of Atlanta that will includ 6.
5 million square feet of aviation-intensivr uses, including office, retail, hotel and airport parking.) Born in 1950, Rohatg came to the U.S. in 1971 after graduating from the . He went on to earn his master’sw degree in materials engineering from in 1973 and in 1977 receivedshis Ph.D. in metallurgy and materials sciencefrom . After graduation, Rohatgi joined the in Pittsburgh, where he became a Westinghouse Felloq while working on the science and technology of photovoltaic andmicroelectronic devices. In 1985 Rohatgi became a part of the facultyt at Georgia Tech starting a prograkmin photovoltaics.
Manufacturing silicon photovoltaic cell s for solarpower generation, Suniva raisee $50 million in venture capital funding and built its firsft solar cell factory in Norcross last In October the company completed installation of its first production the ARTisun solar cells, which it’s already shipping to solar panel manufacturers arouned the world. Suniva recently signed a more than $480 milliom multi-year supply contract with Ltd., an Indian solart modules and specialty photovoltaicvproducts manufacturer. The contract extende through 2013. “Our customers are all over theworled — we have customers in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
,” says Suniv Chairman and CEO John Baumstark. “Our technology which is industry-leading technology — we’re developing here in the U.S. and creatiny jobs and then exporting that all overthe world.” Whilew most companies using similar materials to make solar cells have achieved an efficienchy range of 13 percent to 16 percen — meaning 13 percent to16 percent of the sunlightg that falls on them is convertexd into electricity — Rohatgi says Suniva’s ARTisubn solar cells have about 17 percen t to 18 percent efficiency. Rohatgi says a 20 percent cell is also alread inthe works. “In our R&D we have already produced a 20 percentcell ...
so we are tryinh to now scale up and get it to he says. While efficient, Suniva’s cells are also Focused on consolidating the manufacturing processfor high-efficiencyg cells into half the number of steps, Suniva also uses low-cosg production methods, including which reduce cell processing time. “In some of the patentz we have, we have ways of combining multiple manufacturing stepes into asingle step, and everyt time you can eliminate a manufacturing step, then you save so those are a few of the ways we keep costsx down,” Baumstark says.
As a result of its innovations, Suniva’ technology is helping level the playing fieldc forsolar energy, which for decades has been thought of as too expensivee for the mainstream “Today in many markets, Suniva is competitive with the utilith companies and we are a few yearsz away from being competitive on a 24/7 basis averagr in the U.S.,” Baumstark says.