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2007 Annual Report

2007 ANNUAL REPORT

Strategic Relationships

Developing Better Products through Partnerships, cont.

Advent Solar

Advent Solar
Advent Solar’s innovative cell design has resulted in a startup company that currently employs nearly 100 engineers, technicians, production operators, and administrative staff, and is projected to have 300 employees in a few years. The company’s new Mesa del Sol plant in Albuquerque is pictured in this architect’s rendition. Novint’s Falcon Controller is the first consumer 3-D touch controller that gives a user a very precise sense of touch on a computer.
A breakthrough photovoltaic cell design and fabrication process that eliminates collection grids from the front surface and makes cells more efficient and less costly to build led a Sandia researcher to a new startup company. The startup, Advent Solar, is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has licensed Sandia’s back-contact photovoltaic cell technology.

To help Advent and speed the commercialization of this critical solar technology, Sandia’s licensing team and technical line worked closely with the company to craft a partnership over a matter of months. Later, the partnership was modified to satisfy Advent Solar investors.

With these changes, Advent was able to secure $38 million in venture capital funding and begin construction of a production plant with a capacity of 25 megawatts of solar cells at Mesa del Sol, a new 12,000-acre development in Albuquerque.