Greentech Media

Plextronics, having just raised a $20.6 million B round, is now a player, with a broad set of intellectual property and a solid serial entrepreneur in CEO Andy Hannah. Plextronics is addressing the quickly emerging market for what is often referred to today as "third-gen solar technology," a crop of photovoltaic solutions that move a step beyond the current generation of thin-film PV suppliers with new materials that broaden the applications of solar well beyond rooftop panels and solar farms. Plextronics earns a spot in our top 10 by continuing to execute in a challenging space, and delivering a diverse mix of products from its stock of printed electronics intellectual property, including solutions for RFID tags and sensors, displays and lighting and polymer-based solar cells.

Given that the greentech market happily accommodates both energy-efficient lighting and solar, Plextronics is in the enviable position of being teed up for a two-fer. The company is already delivering its printed electronics to market in the form of organic LEDs and organic RFID tags and is continuing to make progress on proving its unique brand of solar cell, marking a new record for efficiency and setting the stage for even more powerful iPod-charging messenger bags of the future.

Finally, Plextronics hails from Pittsburgh, Pa., the same town one of our founders here spent his youth. We didn't say this was a fair contest.