PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Product news pushes Daystar's stock price

After US company Daystar Technologies Inc. significantly underperformed the PHOTON Photovoltaic Stock Index (PPVX) in 2004, the New York-based company is currently the shooting star among PV stocks – an upswing that is obviously tied to positive expectations about new product announcement.

	© DayStar Technologies, Inc.
Like a rocket: The announcement of the introduction of a flexible CIGS module for stratospheric airships and orbital craft fueled Daystar's stock performance.

In January, DayStar was awarded $1 million from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for the scale-up of its CIGS thin-film module factory and product development (see PI 1/2005, p. 16). And in early March, the small company introduced its solar thin-film module, LightFoil, which was developed specifically for aerospace applications.

The LightFoil uses CIGS cell technology on a substrate made of titanium foil. The cell is thinner than household aluminum foil and thus just as light, though it achieves a high cell efficiency: under laboratory conditions, it was measured at 15.2 percent (AM 0); the specific power level was 1,440 W per kg. According to product specs, the final product should have a specific power level of 1,100 W per kg and a power density of 150 to 200 W per m². The flexible LightFoil can be applied to round surfaces, which makes it perfect for applications such as zeppelins, unmanned aircraft, or satellites – even more as the power density is said to be higher than for all other PV technologies.

»Without the constraints of adapting an existing silicon-based product manufacturing line, we were free to produce a low-cost, lightweight product which exceeds specific power requirements in many cases,« claims chairman of the board John Tuttle. In its press release published March 1, Daystar said that the »first engineering samples should be available in the second quarter of 2005.«

Last summer, Daystar moved from California to New York after the East Coast state lured the company with a package of incentives worth more than $11 million. In July, the company told PHOTON International that it was planning to reach a 1 MW capacity by the end of 2004, scheduled to increase to 5 MW in 2005 (see PI 8/2004, p. 31).

In the first two months of the year, the company's stock significantly outperformed the PPVX: while Daystar's stock price rose by 165 percent, the PPVX increased 64 percent (see article, p. 68).