Cool Earth Solar works on the development of concentrated photovoltaic cell (CPV) system. Instead of using rigid aluminum or glass structures to focus light, the company uses metallized plastic films. And, instead of using ribs, trusswork, or material heft to maintain the mirror shape, the company use active inflation air. The company also actively water cool the company's photovoltaic cells to remove waste heat in contrast to the large, material-intensive heat spreaders and sinks used by most other CPV companies.Serendipitously, inflation air aims to allow us to make an effective concentrator from nothing but thin clear and reflective plastic films bonded to each other like a conventional foil balloon. The inflated structure is lightweight and strong enough to survive 125 mph winds. The company optimize the optical properties of the balloon by actively controlling its inflation. The balloon also forms a protective barrier around the company's PV cell.

Isosceles is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Full Spectrum Conjugated Polymers for Highly Efficient Organic Photovoltaics. Their their award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and their project will demonstrate the feasibility of forming full spectrum highly efficient polymer solar cells from newly designed conjugated and potentially variable bandgap polymers that harvest visible through infrared light. The novel materials will be forged by incorporating Silole and donor-acceptor-donor moieties into the backbone and are expected to increase light harvesting and carrier mobility, and hence short circuit current output potentially by a factor of three over the state of the art. The key innovations of this work will also optimize energy levels to reduce voltage loss and further optimization of device structure and film morphology is expected improve fill factor. The primary objective of phase I is to determine the feasibility of forging full spectrum and high carrier mobility conjugated polymers that achieve highly efficient solar conversion. An ancillary goal of this work is arrive at an understanding of photophysical processes and device physics that will lead to optimal device fabrication during phase II. The environmental, societal and economic impacts of this technology are enormously broad. The ensuing abrupt drop in energy costs stemming from full spectrum harvesting promises to deliver stability and urgently needed relief to today's volatile oil based global economy. While photovoltaic (PV) production is already the fastest growing source of energy across the globe, the planned efforts of this STTR project are expected to disruptively reduce the projected cost of photovoltaic production in 2010 by a factor of 3. At a forecasted production cost of $0.70 per Watt, this research will demonstrate a technology that is competitive with the cost of electricity that is produced from fossil fuels. This technology will provide clean and cost competitive energy for home and industrial power, vehicle propulsion, consumer electronics, remote sensing, security, and an endless list of existing applications that currently rely on energy from fossil fuel.

Jem Enterprises is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Tin(II) Sulfide Photovoltaics. Their project aims to develop photovoltaic devices based on tin (II) sulfide (SnS). The properties of SnS, including bandgaps, carrier density and mobility, chemical and thermal stability, and metallurgical properties, promise the possibility to achieve relatively high conversion efficiency given state-of-art process control and device design. In this project, close space sublimation (CSS) technique, a thin film fabrication method proven for low cost and high manufacturability, will be used to synthesize SnS. The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential to produce photovoltaic devices based on low-cost and environmentally-friendly materials. There is no doubt that solar electricity has attracted a lot of attention in recent years as an alternative and renewable energy source. However, most of the current solar cell technologies have one or more of the following issues that, (1) raw materials are not abundantly available; (2) toxic materials are used; (3) overall cost is high. This project will address these issues by developing photovoltaic devices using SnS, a semiconductor material that can be supplied on a massive scale and at low recovery costs.

Ambp Technology Corporation is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Photovoltaic Laser Annealing System. Their project proposes to achieve recently reported gains in CIGS solar cell efficiency from in-situ laser deposition, by using an ex-situ laser annealing approach that is compatible with an existing pilot manufacturing system. The proposed ex-situ approach will not need to heat the substrate above the 425C value used to manufacture CIGS solar cells on flexible polyimide substrates. Solar cell technology is an energy alternative that can reduce America's dependence on fossil-fuel-generated electric power. A truly cost effective technology is to build cells using methods whose thermal budgets are low enough to enable the use of inexpensive polymer substrates, which enables large-area roll-to-roll processing and automated cell-to-cell connection techniques. AMBP Tech Corporation will develop and demonstrate a tool to improve solar cell performance that is immediately applicable in the solar-cell manufacturing marketplace.

AOS Solar was started in 2005 to combine the material cost and manufacturing process economics of thin film solar PV with the efficiency and reliability of crystalline silicon solar PV. The company have an initial prototype solar coupon built and tested using technology. nnThe company's key enablers to achieve market traction are the cost and reliability of the company's product. The silicon on glass (SOG) technology the company are developing will enable solar panels costing around $1/watt to manufacture on the company's pilot line, with lower costs as the company ramp up production due to manufacturing efficiencies and learning curve. Solar silicon is an established technology with proven 20+ year life (versus newer thin film technologies). nnToday the company have working coupons at 7.5% efficiency and the company are working to scale up to larger cells with target 9% efficiency in Q-1, 2008. The company's form factor and efficiency limits are based on first generation technology. By scaling the company's manufacturing and improving the company's technology the company expect to achieve 16 - 18% efficiency in a single junction and 22 - 24% efficiency in a double junction module. nnThe company's A round funding will be used to continue development of the company's equipment / process technology in order to manufacture on larger substrates (2.5' x 4' glass) and to design a scaled up manufacturing line (30+MW annual capacity) based on this development.

Silicon Photonics Group is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Advanced Si-Ge-Sn-based Photonic Materials and Devices. Their research project aims to demonstrate prototype infrared light detectors and photovoltaic (solar cell) devices based on technology developed at Arizona State University. The new technology to be explored consists in growing optical-quality alloys of tin and germanium (Ge1-ySny) directly on silicon wafers. These alloys act as infrared materials, and they can also be used as templates for the subsequent growth of other semiconductors on silicon. Of particular interest for this project is the ternary alloy Ge1-x-ySixSny, grown for the first time at Arizona State University. Using this technology, it should be possible to build infrared detectors covering a spectral range previously inaccessible to silicon-based detectors, and to build multijunction photovoltaic devices for a more efficient capture of solar photons. The fabrication of semiconductor devices on cheap silicon wafers is of great significance because of the potentially enormous cost reductions and the possibility of integrating optoelectronic and microelectronic functions, which further reduces costs and contributes to system miniaturization. The infrared detectors proposed here cover the so-called telecom C-,L-, and U-bands within the wavelength window around 1500 nm, a region of great interest to the telecommunications industry. In the photovoltaics arena, the proposed devices have the potential to offer increased efficiencies to make crystalline silicon-based devices competitive with amorphous silicon solutions.