Limping DayStar Technologies Sells a Bit More of Itself

By Michael Kanellos

Sometimes, it doesn't pay to be first.

DayStar Technologies (DSTI), one of the first companies to jump into copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, has sold off "non-core" assets in its Halfmoon, N.Y. office, where the company conducted much of its R&D, to Veeco Instruments. DayStar didn't say how much it would be worth, but said it would cut about $2 million from the operating budget. DayStar retained rights to its intellectual property.

The sale will allow Veeco to further elaborate on its plans for selling equipment to the CIGS market.

In May, Stephan DeLuca resigned as CEO and a director at the request of the board. It also laid off 30 percent of its staff at the time. Ratson Morad, who came over from Solyndra last year, recently resigned as COO.

In the first quarter of the year, DayStar lost $7.7 million, up from the $4.5 million loss in the same quarter the year before.

"DayStar had cash and cash equivalents of $6.5 million at March 31, 2009, compared with $17.1 million at December 31, 2008," the earnings release stated. "As of March 31, 2009, DayStar had total liabilities of $16.0 million, and total stockholders’ equity was $37.0 million."

Ugh.

DayStar employed one of the most tested, but perhaps one of the more expensive, methods for growing CIGS: evaporation. Although it works, competitors say it isn't as efficient as sputtering or evaporation. On the other hand, most competitors are also still just approaching mass manufacturing.

Like others, DayStar also wants to produce CIGS cells on metal foils, rather than glass, but making that transition has taken longer than expected.

Comments

[Dumb Question:]

While the most important thing in this article is pointing out the lack of cash at DayStar, I believe there are a few big mistakes in the comment above.

DayStar stopped trying to produce CIGS on metal foil two years ago. They announced a 2x4 ft glass form factor 18 months ago. They stated many many times that the encapsulants necessary for CIGS on foil are not there yet.

DayStar also scrapped evaporation as a method. It is very public that they developed (or attempted to develop) a one step sputtering process for CIGS. They publicly announced they built a custom tool and a full scale manufacturing tool. They appeared 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through investing in a fab when Lehman failed.

Jul 20 08:32 AM

[Zenfar:]

"DayStar employed one of the most tested, but perhaps one of the more expensive, methods for growing CIGS: evaporation. Although it works, competitors say it isn't as efficient as sputtering or evaporation."

This sentence does not make sense to me.

Jul 20 09:40 AM