Magazine SEA 3.5 Edition - Global Solar Technology

Morgan is a University of Toronto engineering graduate with a
specialty in optics and a life-long fascination with solar power,
heightened by service in the Democratic Republic of Congo with
Médecins Sans Frontières as a hospital administrator.
“In Africa, I saw how a lack of access to electricity and to
affordable energy in general was a barrier to development and
better lives for the people there,” says Morgan. “At the same time,
I knew that a tremendous amount of energy from the sun is simply
wasted on the ground. I felt that solar power’s technical problems
were soluble.
“Economical solar power is more than just liberating us from
fossil fuels and delivering clean energy. It’s also an opportunity to
provide less expensive energy that will take millions of people out
of darkness. It’s a force for positive change.”
After leaving Africa, Morgan started studying photovoltaics
on his own. Within months he began securing patents for his
unique way of concentrating sunlight. Morgan had developed a
special opticlens that catches incoming light and directs it in a
concentrated form to a high-efficiency solar cell.
The lens and accompanying system is so powerful that the
energy efficiency rate is 25 per cent, almost double the industry
standard of about 14 per cent.
Morgan’s groundbreaking discovery attracted the attention
of American Asif Ansari, a legend in the solar power industry.
Among Ansari’s 20 start-up successes in the cleantech and
aerospace industries were four in solar energy. Once, he persuaded
Google to invest US$10 million in one of his ventures, eSolar Inc.,
a California-based solar thermal technology powerhouse. When
Ansari last year examined first hand, what Morgan Solar had
achieved, he agreed readily to move to Toronto and takeon the
company’s reins. “When I saw what they had achieved,” recalls
Ansari, “I knew they were onto something, that this could be a
real game-changer.”
Ansari brought immediate international credibility to the
small start-up. About the same time, Morgan Solar landed a second
major investment from Iberdrola, Spain’s major energy company
and a global leader in alternative energy. And last November, North
American energy-delivery powerhouse Enbridge Inc. invested $10
million in Morgan Solar, its first investment in solar technology.
But Morgan Solar has even more than scientific leadership,
much of it developed in collaboration with a lab at the University
of Ottawa that sets it apart from the pack. For its smaller – and
more efficient– Sun Simba solar panels, the company sought and
found cheaper materials that worked as well or better than those
used by competitors. And it rejected a customized manufacturing
process for injection moulding commonly used to produce auto
parts and televisions.
Explains Morgan: “We are producing solar energy cheaper
through vastly lower raw material costs, and the panels can be made
through simple, automated processes at existing manufacturing
facilities.”
Another Morgan Solar advantage down the road – the
panels are fully recyclable after their 20-year lifespan.
Today, the company is focusing its sales efforts on large
companies that have a major energy stake. It expects to announce
a flurry of contracts throughout 2012, beginning in the spring
and summer. Morgan says the company’s first customers will be
outside Canada in jurisdictions where there are no subsidies for
solar power. “We can stand on our own,” he says.
Eventually, Morgan Solar wants to capture the consumer
market. Declares Morgan: “We want to be on every roof top where
the sun shines.”
www.morgansolar.com
www.globalsolartechnology.com
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