Hague Corp, a publicly traded resource exploration company, is pleased to announce that on September 24, 2008 Hague signed a binding letter of intent to purchase all of the assets of Solterra Renewable Technologies, Inc. The agreement between Hague and Solterra requires Hague to fund Solterra a total of five million US dollars within sixty days of signing a final Asset Purchase Agreement. Greg Chapman, President of Hague, stated, "We are extremely pleased to be working with such a company as Solterra. Their vision of capturing renewable solar power is truly on the cutting edge of alternative sources of energy."
Solar power is currently one of the most important segments in energy investment right now and Solterra will be producing and distributing a Thin Film Quantum Dot PV Solar Cell, which is differentiated from other traditional PV cells by a unique disruptive technology that will result in lower cost, higher efficiency, and broader spectral performance.
Solterra's Quantum Dot Solar Cell can achieve a dramatically lower manufacturing cost per watt in part, because Solterra will be manufacturing quantum dots using a patent pending, revolutionary process developed by world renowned quantum dot expert Dr. Michael Wong and his team at Rice University. This process results in the production of extremely desirable, high quality tetrapod quantum dots at a cost savings in excess of 95% when compared to existing production processes. In addition to the cost savings as compared to other quantum dot production methods, Photovoltaic quantum dots, which are the type Dr. Wong is working with, are exciting because they have the potential to convert more than 90% of the solar energy collected into electricity, which represents three times the theoretical limit of silicon-based solar cells. They can also be tuned to deliver either high voltage or high amperage, something that's difficult with conventional silicon cells. They can be placed behind a protective shell, thus ensuring greater longevity and a greater ROI for end users. Solterra Renewable technologies has secured the world wide exclusive license for this leading edge technology and is about to enter the commercialization stage of development on this extremely exciting Solar Cell.
Hague also announces that on October 9, 2008, Solterra concluded a worldwide exclusive license with the William Marsh Rice University for intellectual property which includes the "Synthesis of Uniform Nanoparticle Shapes with High Selectivity." The licensing agreement field of use broadly covers the manufacture and sale of photovoltaic cells and the manufacture and sales of quantum dots for electronic and medical applications.
Rice University's breakthrough discovery has been the highlight of numerous scientific journal articles and has gained the attention of mainstream news media. This new chemical method for making low cost, four-legged cadmium selenide quantum dots, which previous research has shown to be particularly effective at converting sunlight into electrical energy, knocks down a major barrier in developing quantum-dot-based photovoltaics as an alternative to the conventional, more expensive silicon-based solar cells.
"The lack of low cost, high-quality tetrapods of the cadmium selenide kind has been a major roadblock in developing tetrapod-based solar cell devices. With this breakthrough technology that is no longer the case," said Stephen B. Squires, CEO and President of Solterra Renewable Technologies, Inc. Squires continued with, "We believe that we are now positioned to revolutionize the solar panel industry in offering the most cost effective and efficient panels ever produced at a time that they are more in demand than ever before."
The Rice process produces same-sized particles, in which more than 90 percent are tetrapods; previously even in the best recipe less than 50 percent of the prepared particles were tetrapods. Furthermore, the Rice process uses much cheaper raw materials and fewer purification steps reducing the production cost by 80% or more. A positively charged molecule called cetyltrimethylammonium bromide provides this drastic improvement in tetrapod manufacture. This compound, found in some shampoos, also happens to be 100 times cheaper than alkylphosphonic acids and is far safer, further simplifying the manufacturing process.
In addition to photovoltaic applications low cost high quality quantum dots are widely thought to be the enabling factor for a variety of other emerging technologies including high performance QD based lasers, color displays, solid state lighting, bioimaging , quantum computers and solar/hydrogen generation.
Solterra is scheduled to begin scale up of this revolutionary technology in early November 2008 with commercial production anticipated to begin in the second half of 2009.