Alumni Startup Reaches Final Round of American Made Solar Prize Competition

Ten teams have been selected as finalists in Round 1 of the American-Made Solar Prize, a $3 million competition aimed at revitalizing U.S. solar manufacturing. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

One of the finalists, Crystal Sonic, is a startup co-founded by alumni Pablo Guimera Coll (MS 2015). Pablo's team's submission, "Acoustic Cleaving of GaAs for Next Generation PV" aims to dramatically reduce substrate cost and reuse for GaAs based solar cells through a novel wafering technology. They have been awarded $100,000 in part 1 of the competition and are now eligible to participate in the final phase of the competition for an additional $500,000 that will awarded to up to two winning teams.

Guimera Coll received his MS in Physics under the direction of Cortelyou-Rust University Distinguished Professor Christopher Sorensen. He is currently a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University.

See https://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2019/nrel-announces-finalists-in-round-1-of-american-made-solar-prize.html for details on the competition.