Konarka with 1 GW thin-film manufacturing facility

Konarka Technologies Inc. has opened what it claims to be the largest roll-to-roll flexible thin film solar manufacturing facility in the world, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA.

The rationale is to prepare for the commercialisation and mass production of Konarka’s Power Plastic, a thin, lightweight, and “very flexible” polymer-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) thin film solar material. The 250,000 ft² building was previously the location for Polariod Corporation’s advanced printing technologies.

“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,” says Howard Berke, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Konarka.

“Our technical leadership and innovation in flexible thin film solar, along with this facility’s capabilities of producing in excess of 10 million square meters of material per year, will allow us to produce Power Plastic for indoor, portable, outdoor and building integrated applications.”