Rare Earth Solar, a start-up photovoltaic company, said that its first manufacturing facility will be in Beatrice, Neb., and will begin commercial manufacture of its rare earth element-based photovoltaics in 2013. The company is using a proprietary blend of rare earth materials, which company founders think will result in photovoltaics starting at $1.80 to $1.90 per watt.

The patent-pending technology relies on a blend of rare earth materials that company co-founder Allen Kruse could not disclose.

“They’re patent pending, both here in the U.S. and worldwide with the PCT,” he said. “When we get a little bit closer, we’ll get to the point where we can share.”

Kruse could disclose that the company is using some of the lighter heavy metals in its devices.

“We will not have any materials that are EPA sanctioned in our [modules],” he said.

The technology and the company was born and bred at the University of Nebraska. The company was born out of a chance meeting of Kruse, who was looking for help with chemistry courses, and co-founder Joseph Brewer, then a doctoral student, who helped him, according to the Omaha-World Herald. Brewer was working on the use of rare earth elements to replace common photovoltaic semiconductors.

The company’s technology is being tested at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), according to Kruse.

“We are working with NREL,” he said. “We have champion cells [i.e., cells demonstrating the upper reach of the technology] like everyone else. But all we’ll publish in terms of efficiency is the efficiency of our panels.”

The company is targeting lower efficiencies than many currently available solar technologies, between 7 percent and 10 percent, Kruse said.

“We know we can get to 7 percent for certain,” he said. “Seven percent, because the materials we use are so cheap and our manufacturing technique is so simple.”

The deposition technique is simple—meaning that the company can use off-the-shelf equipment.

“I’m going to have margins over 20 percent, and I think we have a very good chance for hitting 10 percent efficiency,” he said.

Rare Earth Solar has completed its first round of funding, according to Kruse.
“It is more than enough to get us from this point to full operation,” he said. “The only thing we haven’t done is put the money down on the building.”

The building is a 274,000 square foot, former Husqvarna mower facility.

The company’s initial production line is expected to produce around 28 megawatts annually, according to Kruse. But it could expand the line up to 100 megawatts as needed.

“If we were to scale up, the 100 megawatt line would take up less space comparatively,” he said. “We think we can get up to 400 megawatts to half a gig of production [at the site].”