Solar3D, an innovator of the revolutionary 3-D solar cell technology, has declared the specifications of its path to commercialization. The company strategically forecasts that the innovative 3D solar cell may enter the market next year.
A management consultant at Bain and Company, Nelson assumes that by leveraging best management practices, new products can be introduced to the market to generate shareholder value.
According to the company’s analysis, the performance of a typical 17% efficient solar cell is equal to a 5% efficient cell on a 20-degree illumination during evening or morning hours. The company believes that around 25% of efficiency can be maintained through Solar3D cell for an extended period of time, generating 200% of the power output of regular solar cells, and contributing to a system payback period that is almost half the time of the existing solar technologies.
Solar3D is now creating a prototype of its 3-D solar cell, which is based on a thin silicon wafer. Upon achieving this “proof of concept” prototype, the path to commercialization devised by the company is summarized as follows:
- Validating that during production, the same power output can be achieved as that in the lab; this would be done with the help of data from the pilot run.
- Selecting a pilot manufacturing partner
- Launching the platform for commercialization and marketing
- Achieving a pilot manufacturing run of 50,000 units
- Identifying and establishing a partnership or license agreement with a production partner
- Identifying distribution or reseller collaborations.