Lux Claims Konarka Technology At Fault

Konarka Bankruptcy a Result of Technology Performance More than Market Shifts

Despite ample funding, Konarka's modules could not
compete in the market on cost, efficiency, or lifetime, validating Lux
Research's history of "strong caution" ratings.

Driven by the promise of cheap, printed solar modules
that can be made colourful and transparent, technically unsavvy investors
rushed to invest in Massachusetts organic photovoltaic developer Konarka to the
tune of $170 million, with an additional $30 million coming from grant funding.
Konarka took that investment and built what it claimed was a 1 GW manufacturing
line, although the line would certainly never come close to that capacity. With
ten times higher cost, and ten times lower efficiency and lifetime compared to
alternative solar technologies, the math never added up for Konarka's "Power
Plastic".

Konarka's underlying
technology was never market ready and its failure was no surprise to those that
read Lux Research's profiles on the troubled company dating back more than 3
years. While in the middle of yet another funding round, Konarka finally ran
out of money, showing that $200 million just doesn't get one as far as it used
to. Now creditors are left to sell off the pieces to recoup a fraction of their
sunken investment as Konarka blames the collapse on an inability to raise more
funding. However, raising funding, more than solar module development, was
where the company excelled. Finding market success in emerging technologies
takes many factors, but a viable technology underpins all of them, something
that Konarka never had and no credible path to attain. A viable market helps as
well, and with a projected organic photovoltaic market size of a meager $159
million in 2020, Konarka won't be the last to run out of investors required to
be as long on patience as they are blessed with money. Buyers and investors
beware.