Konarka Technologies, Inc., today announced the receipt of $5 million in financing in connection with its recently opened production facility in the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Konarka is developing a polymer-based, organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology, called Power Plastic®, that converts light to energy.
The long-term loan comes from a funding collaboration between the Emerging Technology Fund of Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust’s Business Expansion Initiative.
With the opening of its manufacturing location in New Bedford in October 2008, Konarka further expanded its presence in Massachusetts, retrofitting Polaroid’s advanced large-scale manufacturing facility to develop and commercialize Konarka Power Plastic.
“This financing further demonstrates the State’s commitment toward broad-scale solar adoption and green job creation in the area of clean energy,” commented Howard Berke, executive chairman and co-founder of Konarka. He said the funds would be utilized for manufacturing plant and equipment capacity expansion.
Konarka’s advanced photovoltaic technology started with the work of the late Dr. Sukant Tripathy, an internationally known polymer materials scientist, provost at UMASS Lowell and founder of the Plastic Innovation Center and Dr. Alan Heeger, Konarka’s chief scientist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2000.
The discoveries by both founding scientists led to Konarka’s underlying technology leadership with a portfolio of over 300 patents, including a manufacturing process at relatively low temperatures, which enables the use of low-cost plastic substrate films. The company has secured more than $150 million from corporate investors, venture capital and private equity funds globally, as well as $20 million in government agency research grants from the U.S. and Europe.
Konarka Technologies is headquartered in Lowell, Mass., U.S.A. and has a full scale production manufacturing facility in New Bedford, Mass. U.S.A., with European headquarters in Nurnberg, Germany, business development offices in Asia and a research and development facility in Austria.
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