Nanosolar, a prominent solar start-up in Silicon Valley, said on Monday that it had replaced its co-founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, with Geoff Tate, a veteran of the chip industry.
Backed by top venture capital firms and Google’s founders, Nanosolar has raised half a billion dollars to commercialize a solar technology that Mr. Roscheisen has claimed is more efficient and less expensive than that of the industry leader First Solar.
The company declined to give details of Mr. Roscheisen’s departure as chief executive, but said that he remained a director.
Mr. Roscheisen could not be immediately reached for comment.
Nanosolar is one of several green technology firms that have replaced their leadership in recent weeks as top executives at Aurora Biofuels, Clipper Windpower and SolarReserve have stepped down.
Nanosolar manufactures a solar cell made from copper indium gallium (di)selenide. The semiconducting materials and nanoparticles are contained within a proprietary ink that makes it possible to print flexible solar cells on rolls of cheap aluminum foil.
The company, based in San Jose, Calif., said last September that it had booked $4.1 billion in orders for its solar panels and that its customers included solar power plant developers like NextLight, AES Solar and Beck Energy of Germany.
At the time, Mr. Roscheisen said the company was focused on making solar panels for power plants but that a product for residential rooftops was being planned.
“Our highest priority under Geoff’s leadership will be to meet our customer commitments and help make our customers successful,” Brian Sager, a Nanosolar co-founder and board member, said in a statement.
Mr. Tate served as the longtime chief executive of Rambus, a Silicon Valley chip design company, and held positions at Advanced Micro Devices.
2 Readers' Comments
Does this mean there is trouble in paradise? Is there some systemic flaw with their technology? That would be the biggest disappointment of the decade (er, Century) for the green energy industry.
Keep on pushing, Nanosolar. Just get that super production line ready for Copy Exact (Intel's genius). Now, if we can only get a great battery solution...
I highly doubt this is the biggest dissapointment of the century...
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