DSTI INFORMATION:
1. They produce SILICON-FREE solar panels used to convert sunlight to electricity;they adopt a new technology called CIGS (copper,indium,gallium,selenide). Their deposition tool, known as "Big Baby" uses PVD (physical vapor deposition) technology sputtering process on glass.The company was started in 1997.
2. -The raw polysilicon shortage is slashing growth for the industry.
-The thin film solar panels on flexible substrate are much thinner and use less raw materials (1/50 to 1/100th) than common silicon solar panels, they can also be installed almost everywhere.
-CIGS is superior to amorphous Silicon (a-Si) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) by achieving higher conversion rates.
-DayStar has achieved 11.5% efficiency, the PVs are self repairing and no toxic materials are used in the manufacturing process. Life expectancy is projected to be 20 years.
The costs are going to be $1/watt for terrafoil pvs and $2-5/watt for lightfoil pvs.
3. They ship monthly products to Blitzstrom, a company based in Germany , the world's leader country for solar panels, and to the chinese company MEG too.
DSTI provides General Electric CIGS cells, for free, for evaluation as part of the USDOE Solar America Initiative.
DayStar is also selling solar panels to Juwi Solar GmbH, based in Germany.
4. They hired many new workers (from 10 to 85).
5. Honda is producing CIGS solar cells in Kumamoto factory in Japan showing that CIGS is a viable technology. The new facility has an annual capacity of 27.5 megawatts.
6. The stock is very volatile due to low float. DSTI reported a net loss of $7.3 million for the second quarter 2008.
On a per-share basis, the loss narrows to 22 cents a share. This is because Daystar had 15 million shares outstanding on June 30, 2007, and 33 million shares outstanding on June 30, 2008, following a $64 million stock offering in late 2007.
The company, which is still in the development stage, has no revenue.
They have a very low Market Cap compared with other solar players. The best strategy is to invest for the long term.
7. DayStar is building a 25 megawatt ("MW") production line to produce monolithically integrated CIGS modules on glass substrates. They are going to ramp up production in Q1 2009. The initial target market for the glass product will focus on grid-connected central utility-scale power applications.
8. Solar energy is the only way to produce electricity in the long run (1 hour of sunlight worldwide can produce 14 Terawatts, the total amount of energy used worldwide each year) because fossil fuels are running out and they are the cause of wars, terrorism and climate change.
Solar can satisfy all the 4 Policy Challenges (Energy Security, National Security, Environmental Security and Economic Security), while fossil fuels and nuclear energy can satisfy only 2 of them (Economic Security and Energy Security).
http://nsl.caltech.edu/energy.html
