Attached files
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| 8-K - NovAccess Global Inc. | v199492_8k.htm |
| EX-99.1 - NovAccess Global Inc. | v199492_ex99-1.htm |
Stock
Hideout Interview Questions and XsunX, Inc. Chief Executive Office Tom Djokovich
Responses, October 20, 2010
The
interview was preceded by the following advisement:
Safe Harbor
Statement: Matters discussed in this interview may contain forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. When used in this interview, the words “anticipate”, “believe”,
“estimate”, “may”, “intend”, “expect” and similar expressions identify such
forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements
could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking
statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited
to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic,
competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets,
product, and distributor performance, the impact on the national and local
economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and
other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company.
XsunX
encourages participants to read the investor information available at the web
sites of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at http://www.sec.gov
and the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) at
http://www.nasd.com. Interested participants can review all public filings by
the Company at the SEC's EDGAR page.
This
interview does not constitute an offering of securities by the Company, nor
shall there be any sale of securities related to this interview.
The
following are the questions and answers:
1. Stock Hideout
Question: XsunX is developing new manufacturing technology for
CIGS solar thin-film and just yesterday you announced achieving over 14% cell
efficiency, congratulations. Does this achievement break you out of the CIGS
pack with an advantage?
XsunX CEO Response: Thanks,
we’re very excited about the results we’ve achieved so far in such a short time
but we believe there is a lot more we can pull out of this technology to further
differentiate ourselves. Co-evaporated CIGS holds the record for thin film
efficiency at over 20% and has a theoretical upper limit of nearly 30% which is
actually better than silicon’s upper limits.
If a
company could achieve some of the higher efficiency potentials of CIGS combined
with its lower material and production costs we believe that CIGS could surpass
silicon as the dominant global solar technology. That’s our goal at
XsunX.
2. Stock Hideout
Question: So what is it that XsunX is doing, what’s the
differentiating aspect to your new approach that you think may allow you to
compete with or even replace silicon?
XsunX CEO Response: There are
a couple of key points necessary to an answer this.
First,
XsunX is focused on making CIGS cells that match the same product format as
silicon solar cells – initially about 5 inch wafers and we plan to move to 6
inch as rapidly as possible. Offering a similar product format is the first step
to being viewed as an alternative solution to the use of silicon.
Second,
by keeping our deposition area small we eliminate significant difficulties that
manufacturers have experienced while trying to scale the very important thermal
co-evaporation process.
To
compete with silicon you need to deliver the potential for silicon efficiencies
of 14% to 16% at the solar module level. By keeping the co-evaporation process
area small we believe we can achieve and eventually surpass this
requirement.
And, you
need a manufacturing process that can produce commercial quantities at low cost.
So rather than re-invent the entire wheel we’ve focused on leveraging existing
technologies from within the hard disc industry with proven CIGS thermal
co-evaporation methods to design high rate low cost production equipment.
Essentially five tool sets combine to mass produce CIGS cells on stainless steel
wafers.
Current
market pricing for silicon solar cells is over $1.25 per watt. Under our
analysis production costs for our CIGSolar™ technology may deliver cells in the
mid $0.40 cents per watt range at only 11% efficiencies levels with more to gain
in the future as we work to tap higher efficiencies.
That
beats the pants off of current silicon solar cell per watt pricing and
eliminates pricing volatility which is typical with silicon.
3. Stock Hideout
Question: So XsunX is basically working to make CIGS
solar cells that can be used like silicon cells. Does this provide any other
advantages or weaknesses?
XsunX CEO Response: I’m glad
you asked this. We see several very important advantages to our CIGSolar™
technology as compared to both other CIGS solutions and silicon.
A major
advantage to using 6 inch CIGS solar cells over monolithically deposited CIGS
panels is the size of the panel that can be produced using multiple cells, and
assembly techniques that reduce total module operating losses.
One of
the reasons most monolithic CIGS solar panels are rather small is due to
challenges manufacturers have in scaling the size of the deposition process
without loosing too much control of the quality of the process. This challenge
results in smaller panels with consistently low power ratings compared to
silicon modules – about half. With individual cells you can design larger panels
that can produce more power – closer if not identical to silicon
modules.
Next, to
turn a monolithically deposited CIGS panel into a solar module there are a
number of manufacturing aspects that eliminate the amount of active solar
absorbing material, and create resistive and current mismatch loses that when
combined can reduce total energy production potential by 30%.
That
means that monolithic CIGS panels may have cells that produce over 12%
conversion efficiency but after you account for all of the losses the panel
power output may actually be closer to 10% or less.
By
contrast when you use wafer based cells, like silicon cells or XsunX’s CIGS
cells, typical total loss is limited to under 20%. So in addition to being able
to make larger more powerful panels with individual cells you also net out with
less power lost to assembly techniques as well. This is why silicon continues to
be such a dominant technology – for now. We’re obviously working to change
that.
Also,
XsunX is using a process called co-evaporation to produce the CIGS solar
absorber. Other companies in the CIGS space that use sputtering or inks
typically have to also use a process called post Selenization to complete the
CIGS manufacturing process. The Selenization process actually relocates the
gallium atoms away from the region that absorbs the sunlight.
This
results in an inherent limitation to the upper efficiency potentials for
sputtered or ink based CIGS that use the post Selenization process. Sputtering
uses more costly materials as well. I compare it to buying a printer that gets
the basic job done and then the cost of printer cartridges drives you to the
poor house.
An
advantage over silicon solar cells is that XsunX CIGSolar™ cells will be made on
stainless steel wafers that can help eliminate factory losses due to breakage of
thin fragile silicon. We’ve spoken to silicon users that tell us that they’ve
experienced as much as 8% loss in the factory due to cell breakage. That’s a
significant production gain and cost savings if breakage can be reduced or
eliminated with XsunX CIGSolar™ technology.
As for
weakness I can’t think of any major issue. Obviously XsunX will have to provide
a robust manufacturing solution, but we have several key technology
relationships that we believe will allow us to complete our system development
and deliver and support a solid solution.
4. Stock Hideout
Question: Together it sounds like there may be some
significant advantages. What type of solar efficiencies and costs do you
anticipate from the XsunX CIGS technology?
XsunX CEO Response: We’ve
created technical cost models up to 15.5% conversion efficiencies for our CIGS
cells. This includes the anticipation of incrementally reducing the time
required to process each cell. Co-evaporated CIGS holds the promise of even
higher efficiencies but for now we’ve run our models to
15.5%.
What we
anticipate being able to achieve are per watt production costs of nearly $0.30
cents per watt. We’ve used all American labor rates and materials in our
projections and have not accounted for volume material cost savings so there may
be additional cost reductions to garner as well. We see this as a significant
pricing incentive to attract silicon users that are paying well over a dollar
for silicon cells to begin to use XsunX CIGSolar™ technology.
5. Stock Hideout
Question: How does XsunX plan to market this technology
and generate income?
XsunX CEO Response: What we’ve
planned to do is
rather than assume the burden of building a factory directly, and slow the
distribution of the technology to one factory at a time; we will license this
proprietary technology to create joint venture business agreements for the use
of our CIGSolar™ technology. We believe that this approach provides us a high
degree of flexibility while we continue to focus on innovation. It also allows
XsunX to eliminate capital expenditures associated with building factories, and
leverage the full value of existing and new markets developed by our joint
venture partners.
Over the
next several years we plan to market CIGSolar™ technology and establish JV
manufacturing relationships with companies in the American, European, and Asian
regions. Our plans are to generate revenues through licensing fees and
manufacturing royalties based on production volumes. In this way we can continue
to focus on what we do best while empowering other companies to do what they do
best.
6. Stock Hideout Question: Has
XsunX found any companies interested in working with you under your licensing
model?
XsunX CEO Response: Yes, we
have been in discussions with several interested companies. There are a few
milestones requested by these entities necessary to complete our deals, but
yesterday’s announcement of achieving 14% CIGS will help towards moving these
relationships forward.
We have a
lot more information and great a Flash presentation on our web site at www.xsunx.com for
anyone interested in understanding more.
7. Stock Hideout Closing Comment:
It appears that CIGS has gained a lot of
attention over the last year and many analysts believe that CIGS may provide the
low production costs and higher efficiencies necessary to support the next
significant reductions to the cost of solar energy. It sounds like XsunX may be
on the cusp of making this happen. Good luck and thanks for your time
today.