Solar Startup Ampulse Closing Its Doors

Solar shakeout in full effect

Eric Wesoff December 03, 2012

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

Solar startup Ampulse of Golden, Colorado is winding down its operations, according to sources. Calls to the CEO and the firm's VC investors have not been returned.

When we reported on the 150+ VC-funded solar startups in the last few years, we were clear that the majority would not survive and the shakeout would be painful. The loss of the ten-employee startup Ampulse is just a small step in this necessary consolidation.

Ampulse wanted to deposit a thin layer of monocrystalline silicon on a copper foil. Armed with substrate and buffer technology from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition epitaxial silicon processing from NREL, Ampulse aimed to grow high-efficiency monocrystalline cells directly from silane gas.

The firm received more than $10 million from Globespan Capital Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Battelle Ventures and the DOE.

The firm was founded in 2008 when solar panels and silicon were a bit more expensive. In 2009, investor Daniel Leff of Globespan Capital said that Ampulse was on a “radically different cost curve" and would still outshine competitors even with the cheaper silicon and their push to improve efficiencies.

People close to the company observed very slow progress over the last few years and an inability of the Ampulse approach to support high (or even moderate) efficiencies.

Ampulse falls in the direct-gas-to-wafer technology segment, along with Solexel and Crystal Solar. Crystal Solar's CTO recently left the firm, according to sources and his LinkedIn profile.

Despite the apparent demise of Ampulse, the value proposition of cheaper and more efficient crystalline silicon remains valid. Although the cost of solar panels has plummeted, silicon remains a significant cost in the solar panel Bill of Materials. If less silicon can be used, if cells can be made more efficient, or if processing steps can be eliminated, there is still an opportunity for industry and entrepreneurs.

GTM Research just released a detailed report on new c-Si technologies, and report author Andrew Gabor speaks at length on the topic in this podcast. The report (and our ongoing online coverage) explores the benefits of thin silicon, ion implant technology, and other kerfless technologies, as well as diamond saws, encapsulants and new cell architectures.