Bridgeworks Capital they raised about $6.2
million in seed capital, and approached NREL
to license its record-setting Cd Te technology.
In December of that year Zweibel joined
PrimeStar as chairman and president. The company set out to build a pilot production line in
Arvada, Colo.
In June 2007, DOE came up with a $3 million Solar America Initiative grant. The PrimeStar team had connections at General Electric.
In September 2007, GE took a minority share in
the start-up. With about 50 skilled engineers and
technicians on board, progress was rapid. GE
raised its stake to more than 50 percent in 2008,
and the Arvada factory began shipping product
in June 2009. In April of 2011, GE announced
full ownership of PrimeStar, and in the fall promised to invest an additional $600 million in Cd Te
production. First phase: Open a new factory in
Aurora, Colo. Target module efficiency was 14
percent at prices competitive with First Solar.
When GE took control, Zweibel moved
on to organize the Solar Institute at George
Washington University (GWU) in Washing-
ton, D.C. “I’m very happy with the situation
since GE came in,” he said. “And I’m thrilled
that they were able to put the new plant in the
Denver area. One of my hopes was that we’d
have thin-film production here. It’s turned out
that NREL, as a reservoir of good knowledge
and collaboration, has helped Colorado start-
ups to be successful. NREL remains a great
resource because as a new company you don’t
need technology transfer so much as collabora-
tion — help with measurement and so on to
supplement in-house capabilities.”
At GWU, Zweibel expects to exert some
influence on government, at DOE but also on
tax and deployment policies. “We’ve been heard
by decision makers on a variety of technical pri-
orities — things like the basic nature of Cd Te
contacts and CIGS large-area deposition. We’ve
helped convince DOE to spend some money to
help make the research more successful.”
Zweibel has also returned to writing. A
cover story in the January 2008 issue of Scien-
tific American, written with James Mason and
Vasilis Fthenakis, popularized the idea that solar
could provide 69 percent of America’s electric
power by 2050, displacing fossil- and nuclear-
powered steam turbines. “That piece was a suc-
cess,” he said. He’s recently published articles
on the cost of solar power (with Richard Perez
and Thomas Hoff), and on the potential of PV
materials to have a 100-year life cycle, consider-
ing their ability to be recycled into new modules.
“The Hoover Dam has produced power for 2. 5
cents per kilowatt-hour after it was paid off,” he
pointed out. “Why shouldn’t we expect 1 cent
per kilowatt-hour from PV after its systems have
been paid off?”
“Thin-film Cd Te and maybe CIGS have a
brighter future for U.S. manufacturing than
silicon,” he said. “It’s important that module
efficiency go up to 15 percent for American fac-
tories to have a competitive advantage. Between
them, Cd Te and CIS give us the ability to com-
pete worldwide. The Solyndra bankruptcy was
not a setback for CIS, but for the cylindrical
form. Just like Cd Te, flat-plate CIS is viable.
Production innovations can soon bring module
manufacturing cost down to 50 cents a watt, and
possibly 30 cents.” ST
