Newsclip

GreenRay grabs funding;
looks to grow in Bay State

Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology | October 5, 2007

by Catherine Williams Mass High Tech

A Lincoln-based company developing affordable solar energy for the residential market last week won approval for a $500,000 loan from a government-backed agency, and it's planning a pitch for venture funding.

GreenRay Inc. has pulled in three government-funded investments worth $3.2 million since winning third-place in MIT's Ignite Clean Energy competition in May.

In addition, The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-state technology investment agency, voted last week to approve a $500,000 loan to GreenRay.

"Our goal is to see that they grow here in Massachusetts," said Sissi Liu, program manger at the collaborative.

GreenRay, which was founded in 2006, is headed by 30-year solar energy research veteran Miles Russell. Russell left Schott Solar Inc., where he served as a director of systems development, to co-found GreenRay. Russell, now president of GreenRay, said he plans to aggressively seek venture funding in 2008.

"I am very dedicated to what we are undertaking here," he said.

The company employs four workers and is developing solar panels that are less expensive to install because they require less parts.

GreenRay researchers are developing a technology that would convert solar power directly into alternating current (AC) electricity, eliminating the need to design and install DC-to-AC converter systems that are now required to use solar power.

But Russell said it will be two years before a product launch.

Russell said he first "caught the bug" for renewable energy research in the 1970s. He went on to earn two degrees in mechanical engineering: a master's degree from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from Purdue University.

Russell worked at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory developing solar technology before co-founding Waltham-based Ascension Technology Inc. with Edward Kern in 1987. California-based Schott Solar, a subsidiary of German-based Schott AG with a manufacturing facility in Billerica, now owns the Ascension-based technologies.

In March 2007, GreenRay won the lead role in a three-year solar energy research grant, worth $2.5 million, from the U.S. Department of Energy. GreenRay is collaborating on the Department of Energy research project with six other companies including Tyco Electronics Corp. and National Grid.

GreenRay was one of 14 companies nationwide selected by the Department of Energy to receive a slice of the first round of its new $168 million Solar America Initiative research grants. Lowell-based Konarka Technologies Inc., which won a solar research grant worth up to $3.6 million, and GreenRay were the only Massachusetts companies selected to win funding from this batch of grants.

GreenRay also won a $150,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, said Russell.

Other companies competing in the residential solar market include New Jersey-based Petra Solar Inc., which just raised $14 million in Series A funding.