Emcore to close Californian solar panel fab
III-V component and subsystem manufacturer Emcore is to close its solar panel fabrication facility in City of Industry, California, and consolidate the business into its Albuquerque, NM, location.
The move, which is expected to save the company $3 million annually, is expected to be completed by the end of the current calendar year.
Emcore says that the Albuquerque solar panel facility will be highly automated, therefore producing more consistent product performance and reducing manufacturing costs.
"Our modern wafer fabrication line in Albuquerque employs state-of-the-art manufacturing methods, which will be applied directly to the solar cell assembly and panel manufacturing operation," said the Somerset, NJ, company in a statement.
Emcore competes primarily with the Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab for a share of the III-V solar cell market, which is dominated by satellite applications.
However, Emcore believes that by reducing its costs it will be able to broaden its photovoltaics product portfolio to also compete in terrestrial solar cell concentrators that can be hooked up to electrical grids. Solar cells based on III-V materials are currently regarded as being too expensive for terrestrial use.
Emcore's photovoltaics division is also involved in two NASA contracts recently won by the Keller, Texas, firm Entech.
Entech makes solar power arrays for both space-based and terrestrial applications, and is collaborating with Emcore on projects sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.
Under a $0.6 million phase II small business innovation research (SBIR) contract, the team will develop a solar cell concentrator system capable of collecting both sunlight and infrared laser light.
The idea is that spacecraft at the north and south poles of the Moon, which are known to contain hydrogen but which do not receive any direct sunlight, could be powered by a long-range laser beam fired from an orbiting craft at the solar array.
In another Emcore-Entech contract worth an initial $1.8 million, a very-high-power array is set to be developed. If deemed successful, this contract could be funded an extra $12.5 million.
