Octillion Corp., together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a technology incubator focused on the identification, acquisition, development, and commercialization of alternative and renewable energy technologies. Through established relationships with universities, research institutions, government agencies and start-up companies, the company strive to identify technologies and business opportunities on an edge of innovation that have the potential of serving and unmet market needs. nOnce a technology has been identified, the company fund the research and development activities relating to the technology with the intention of ultimately, if warranted, licensing, commercializing and marketing the subject technology, either through internal resources, collaborative agreements or otherwise. Unique to the company's business model is the use of established research infrastructure owned by the various organizations the company deal with, saving us capital which would otherwise be required for such things as land and building acquisition, equipment and furniture purchases, and other incidental start up costs. As a result, the company are able to conduct research in development. nnAmong the company's current research and development activities is the development of a patent-pending technology that could adapt existing home and office glass windows into ones capable of generating electricity from solar energy without losing transparency or requiring major changes in manufacturing infrastructure. The company are also developing a system to harness the kinetic energy of vehicles in motion as part of a broader effort to enhance the sustainability and energy efficiency of transportation infrastructures and systems.

The Power-Spar is a high efficiency solar concentrator that can be configured for electricity, heat, cooling and/or lighting solutions. The Power-Spar system consists of a parabolic trough reflector which concentrates the sun's energy onto a modular absorber. The absorber converts the sun's energy to electricity (via high efficiency multi-sun photovoltaic cells), or to heat (via a patented absorption surface) or transports the light to the buildings' interior (via optical cabling). The system is designed for easy integration with heat recovery systems, turbines, thermal based chillers and geo-thermal solutions to maximize the thermal, electrical and lighting outputs. This efficient co-generation yields unprecedented dollar value. Capable of capturing up to 80% of the sun's energy, Power- Spar systems can reduce typical building energy bills by as much as 70%/year!

Gratings Incorporated is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: High Efficiency Thin-film Photovoltaics on Low-cost Substrates by Layer Transfer. Their their award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and their project will apply high aspect ratio, nm-scale, columnar, and crystalline Si structures as templates for high-quality growth of thin-film GaAs solar cells on low-cost flexible substrates. Sub-10-nm Si seed layers are expected to facilitate growth of low-defect density GaAs films. The aspect ratio of nm-scale structures also serve as sacrificial layers for removal of completed GaAs solar cell. Epitaxial growth and characterization of GaAs films on nm-scale Si structures will be carried out at the Center for High Technology at the University of New Mexico. Successful phase I STTR research will lead to commercialization of high (~ 20 %) efficient, flexible solar cells for applications in a wide range of terrestrial and space environments. Multiple substrate re-use and inherent large area processing capability of Si will result in significant cost reductions. High quality heteroepitaxial GaAs growth on Si has been a subject of intense research. Due to its direct bandgap, GaAs is attractive for a number of optoelectronics applications and its integration with Si-based microelectronics has been a cherished goal. The lattice and thermal expansion mismatches with Si make it difficult to grow good device quality layers. We have recently demonstrated as the Si seed dimension is reduced below 100 nm dimensions, the quality of heteroepitaxial growth increases rapidly. The nm-scale Si structures are formed using low-cost, large area methods based on conventional integrated circuit processing methods. Successful research effort will lead to reduction in PV generation costs, and enhanced applicability of thin-film PV in terrestrial and space environments because in contrast with competing thin-film solar cells, GaAs thin-film solar cells will not suffer from light-induced performance degradation.

Meridian Deployment Corporation is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Motion-Free Tracking Solar Concentrator. Their project investigates novel optical element (OE) for Photovoltaic (PV) systems that uses refractive index modulation to steer sunlight. It addresses the fundamental challenge of tracking the motion of the sun while keeping the concentrated light on the target. For decades this has been accomplished electro-mechanically using motors and feedback circuitry to physically move the optics and/or the target so that the device is always aligned with the sun. This project develops a simple, motion-free tracking system that eliminates all the negative aspects of current mechanical trackers. It is suitable for deployment on any PV system by adapting the optical characteristics. The project goals are to optimize design elements of the OE including materials, configuration and manufacturing technique, and building prototypes for testing in both lab and field sites. Phase I will establish a prototype of a motion-free tracking collector and concentrator that will address three interconnected design issues. These are 1) maximizing throughput of the device by eliminating unwanted reflections from various interfaces, 2) maximizing the range of solar incidence angles, and 3) lowering the cost of the finished device for commercialization. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be to enable widespread adoption of localized solar power generation. This technology solves the inherent complexity of simultaneously realizing mechanical stability under wind and seismic loading, electro-mechanical tracking accuracy, and eliminates high costs associated with mechanical trackers. Phase I of this program will establish technical benchmarks to maximize the steering range and light concentration ratio for a novel motion-free tracking system. New conductive coatings are index-matched to minimize internal reflections that cause loss of light throughput, while lens geometries and other components will be engineered to maximize efficiency of the system. Because the device is low-profile and lightweight, it can be easily installed on existing rooftops without requiring substantial structural reinforcement, making commercial acceptance likely. This motion-free tracking technology has these commercial advantages over existing solar PV systems: simple, inexpensive installation, low profile esthetics, and more efficient solar power generation for commercial and residential installations. In summary, it will generate more electricity from a smaller footprint for lower overall cost.

PhotoVolt, Inc. was founded in 1994 by Bernard Sater, a former NASA Glenn Research Center scientist and inventor, with a vision to enable high intensity photovoltaic ("PV"‚) concentrator systems to achieve lower cost per watt than is possible with conventional photovoltaic technologies. PhotoVolt's cell technology has the potential for making PV power systems economically viable for widespread application and cost competitive with conventional fuels in large-scale global markets. Over the past 14 years, with the support of NASA Glenn Research Center , and the late Dr. Chandra Goradia, a renowned PV researcher at Cleveland State University, with US Department of Energy grants, Mr. Sater successfully proved the promise of his invention and introduced it to the market as a commercial product. In 2007, PhotoVolt management decided to accelerate development of the high intensity concentrator market by forming a new company called GreenField Steam & Electric Co. to develop and commercialize concentrator PV systems utilizing PhotoVolt's cell technology. The new company successfully raised seed money, developed a new concentrator design, made first sales, and secured the IP by filing for many patents. The Company aiming to bring to market a high intensity concentrating PV system named StarGen a solution that is ideally suited to leverage the strengths of the PhotoVolt cell, while delivering "free"‚ thermal energy . This system is designed to make maximum use of off-the-shelf components and materials, holding the promise to produce solar energy at lower price points. In 2008, PhotoVolt, Inc. and GreenField Steam & Electric Co. agreed to merge, becoming GreenField Solar The Company, based near Cleveland Ohio, USA, intends to license its technology in the future. Management is working to raise additional capital to scale up production capacity in 2009 and beyond.

Description from the About/Overview section: Solaris' primary aims to provide low manufacturing cost, high efficiency and long life solar cells to capture a major portion of the projected growth of the global renewable energy market. Equity financing and Company resources are used exclusively towards this goal. However, since Solaris' NanoAntennaTM materials present a number of other large market opportunities which are validated in part by the development of high efficiency photovoltaics, the company have begun to pursue these other applications through externally funded collaborations, contracts, and agreements. These other applications of the company's nano-antenna technology and intellectual property include the enhancement of human vision, high performance liquid crystal displays, and chemical and biological sensing. Solaris Nanosciences is a subsidiary of Spectra Systems Corporation (www.spsy.com), a profitable, private company spun out of Brown University in 1996. Spectra Systems' core competence in high performance optical materials, intellectual property and physical infrastructure led to the launch of Solaris Nanosciences in May of 2004.