Strategic Relationships
Developing Better Products through Partnerships, cont.
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.
