Konarka Technologies Inc. has opened a 250,000 square-foot roll-to-roll, flexible thin-film solar manufacturing facility in New Bedford, Mass., in preparation for the commercialization and mass production of its patent-protected thin-film solar material, Power Plastic.
‘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,’ says Howard Berke, executive chairman and co-founder of Konarka.
With this manufacturing location, Konarka further expands its presence in Massachusetts and accelerates its plans to develop and commercialize its polymer-based organic photovoltaic technologies worldwide.
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 over 100 additional employees as production increases toward capacity over the next two to three years.
SOURCE: Konarka
