Headquartered in Villasanta, near Milan, MX Holding is the holding company of an Italian group with international exposure in the solar photovoltaic industry since 2000.
With two plants outside of Milan and one in Somerset, NJ in the US, MX Holding has a total solar capacity of 250 MW and extensive experience in the planning and construction of turnkey photovoltaic plants.
In 2010, the group registered sales of $155 million.
"Solar cell manufacturers tend to buy their fabrication equipment from the same three German companies," said Carmelito Denaro, CEO of MX Solar USA and its parent, MX Holding. "And solar panel fabricators tend to buy their solar cells from the same Asian sources, all of which use that German equipment. Consequently, there is not much difference between panels from one fabricator and those from another.
“We were looking for an advantage: something that could enable us to make better solar cells with greater efficiency or lower cost. We found both when we found Natcore," Denaro said.
The research and development work would be based on Natcore's liquid phase deposition (LPD) technology, and on the work of Dr. Daniele Margadona, the MX group's Chief Technology Officer.
According to Natcore, LPD is a process that is safer, more environmentally friendly, and less expensive than the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process that is now the industry standard.
The three key areas within the initial scope of the joint venture are:
• Selective emitter concept, a process for putting front contacts on a solar cell that could improve its efficiency up to 2.0%. • Back side passivation, the process of filling dangling atomic bonds on the rear surface of solar cells and reducing the numbers of defects that always exist in the upper region of the cell body. It is critical to enabling production of long-term, high-performance silicon solar cells. • Epitaxial growth, a new technology for the production of wafers with reusable silicon substrates.
Additionally, Natcore and MX Holding intend to participate, together with third-party investors, in the ownership of a solar cell manufacturing facility that will produce and sell high-efficiency solar cells based on the technologies developed by the R&D joint venture.
The third-party investors are a consortium of MX Holding and five other Italian solar panel manufacturers who now buy their solar cells from Asian producers.
It is expected that consortium members would consume the entire solar cell output derived from the new manufacturing entity, which would utilize Natcore's existing LPD technologies. New technologies will be phased in as they're developed.
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