Thin-Film Solar Panel Maker Konarka Files for Bankruptcy ...

Konarka Technologies Inc., the thin-
film solar panel manufacturer backed by Chevron Corp. (CVX), Draper
Fisher Jurvetson and New Enterprise Associates Inc., filed for
bankruptcy in Massachusetts.

?Konarka has been unable to obtain additional financing,
and given its current financial condition, it is unable to
continue operations,? Howard Berke, chief executive officer of
the Lowell, Massachusetts-based company, said yesterday in a
statement.

Konarka listed $100,000 to $500,000 in assets and $10
million to $50 million in debt in its Chapter 7 filing yesterday
in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Worcester, Massachusetts. Konarka NB
Holdings LLC, in a separate filing, listed $1 million to $10
million in assets and as much as $50,000 in debt.

At least four other U.S. solar panel manufacturers filed
for bankruptcy in the past year as the price of the panels fell
50 percent due to oversupply and production expansion in China.

Konarka?s solar panels were made from a conductive polymer
invented by company co-founder and Nobel Prize-winner Alan Heeger, not from silicon used in conventional solar panels.

Manufacturers of thin-film solar products such as Konarka
attracted venture investments as the price of polysilicon, the
raw material in conventional panels, steadily increased and
peaked at $475 a kilogram in 2008. The material?s average spot
price has since fallen to $23.20 a kilogram, according to
Bloomberg New Energy Finance data.

Konarka?s Technology

Konarka printed its conductive polymer onto a flexible
plastic backing material, an approach that was simpler and saved
costs compared to conventional solar panel manufacturing, and
the panels were flexible enough to be incorporated into
buildings or other urban structures, according to the company.

Konarka?s technology was less efficient at converting light
into electricity than others in the industry. Its panels had a
conversion efficiency of about 9 percent, according to the
company?s website. Semprius Inc., a solar panel maker backed by
Siemens AG (SIE), claims to have demonstrated the world?s highest
efficiency in the lab of 33.9 percent.

Its other investors included Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. (4902),
Total SA (FP), Good Energies Inc., Massachusetts Technology
Collaborative and the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund LP. The
company raised at least $189 million in venture capital since
2001, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Shareholder ?Tragedy?

?This is a tragedy for Konarka?s shareholders and
employees and for the development of alternative energy in the
U.S.,? Berke said.

Konarka was one of the first solar companies to be funded
with venture capital, said Nathaniel Bullard, an analyst with
Bloomberg New Energy Finance in San Francisco. ?It received its
first venture investments nearly 11 years ago, in August 2001.?

The company?s technology has ?great promise though with
the eternal caveats? regarding cost, efficiency and a need for
industrial partners, Bullard said.

The case is In re Konarka Technologies, 12-42095, U.S.
Bankruptcy Court, District of Massachusetts (Worcester.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at
aherndon2@bloomberg.net;
Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at
epettersson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at
mhytha@bloomberg.net;
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net

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