Commercial plans for Advent's newly dedicated pilot line a mystery

As part of a high-powered ribbon-cutting ceremony, both of New Mexico's US senators, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, attended the launch of a pilot production facility on May 3 at Advent Solar Inc., an Albuquerque-based PV start-up aiming for commercial production of back-contact emitter wrap-through (EWT) cells. 

© Advent Solar Inc. Blues brothers: Touring the new pilot production line at Advent Solar are (from left) Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Advent's CEO Rusty Schmit, New Mexico Secretary of Economic Development Rick Homans, and Sen. Pete Domenici.

But despite the prominent guests, revelations of when commercial production could start remain a mystery. »Unfortunately, we are not yet ready to announce any capacity, production, or efficiency levels,« says Advent's CEO, Rusty Schmit, who once headed up French PV manufacturer Photowatt International SA. He would only say that the production line is »a significant step for Advent toward full-scale production.«

In 2003, Schmit told PHOTON International that the company was hoping for a prototype to be ready by Aug. 2004, with commercial production to start a year later (see PI 9/2003, p. 16). Advent's EWT technology is designed to do away with grid fingers on the front of the 125 × 125 mm wafers with a thickness of just 150 µm.

William P. Hirshman
© PHOTON International, June 2005