The 250,000 square foot building was a previous site for a facility owned and operated by Polaroid Corp.
The facility has been retrofitted to begin initial production of Power Plastic. Using multiple in-line processing stations with precision multi-layer manufacturing processes that are adaptable to a variety of printing and coating technologies, the facility will enable the company to develop and advance nano-enabled polymer photovoltaic materials that are lightweight, flexible and more versatile than traditional solar materials, according to the company.
“This facility has state-of-the-art printing capabilities that are ready for full operation, with the future potential to produce over a gigawatt of flexible plastic solar modules per year," said Howard Berke, executive chairman and co-founder of Konarka.
The facility has the capability of producing more than 10 million square meters of material per year. It will allow the company to produce Power Plastic for indoor, portable, outdoor and building integrated applications, Burke said.
In addition to acquiring the fully automated roll-to-roll manufacturing line, the company has also hired the leading technology and process engineering teams from Polaroid, with plans to hire more than 100 additional employees as production increases toward capacity during the next two to three years.
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