Comments on: Why greentech startups need to renew their focus on volume manufacturing

By: Kunal

Kunal — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:16:50 +0000

Thanks Abhishek for reading the article and your comment. I completely agree with your take on the battery industry and the conundrum faced by upcoming startups in that space. Batteries for EV have stringent product expectations in terms of safety, reliability, weight, cost among other things. To satisfy all those constraints and produce them with a high yield in volumes is a challenge for any company, and more so for a startup where availability of finance is tough, and not to mention your point of uncertain demand. Its a tough road out there for startups in this space and other companies trying to solve real material science problems. Only companies with good financing and robust manufacturing will survive in my opinion!

By: Kunal

Kunal — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:02:40 +0000

I am sorry but I could not understand what your question is. The article assumes that the market and demand is ready. It also assumes the product specifications of the startups are superior to competition. Its a question of whether startups (esp based out of silicon valley) can execute manufacturing well enough to achieve cost effective products in mass numbers. The ability to do that will define their true success.

By: Abhishek Guha

Abhishek Guha — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:21:41 +0000

Enjoyed thearticle. One potential pitfall that start ups might face while preparing for high volume manufacturing is predicting the rate at which the demand for their technology will grow. Case in point, electric vehicles where a lack of widespread acceptance (atleast till date) of the technology has forced the major players to scale back manufacturing and that strategy has impacted their suppliers, many of whom are startups. In many instances, these startups have been forced to establish their manufacturing bases in Asia which does not endear them to the political establishment or the common public in this country.

By: Shengyun LU

Shengyun LU — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:50:20 +0000

Thanks for your article, nice analysis. actually, I would like to know more about “volume manufacturing” as you mentionned. Actually, what I know is that China is pushing strongly to reduce the CO2 emission and there will be a potential great market, however I heard much less in Europe about this industry whose key issue is actually R&D cost. Am I right?
So when you talk about “volume manufacturing”, you should talk about also the sales and the potential market. Do you think that USA or Europe market coubld support it?

By: Kunal

Kunal — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:03:43 +0000

Thanks Alex for your inputs. You have a good point on why Intel, First solar did well with manufacturing given they had time to iron out kinks before the competition caught up. And even though I feel for Nanosolar and Miasole given they are/were tackling really big and difficult problems, I do think the point to be conveyed is they probably innovated on too many fronts at once and expected that to scale without any problems. Experienced manufacturing people realize that you can’t implement all product innovations at scale at first try. You have to slowly ramp up with one or two innovations and slowly introduce next versions once the older concepts are up to scale. My guess is that Nanosolar and Miasole thought they could implement all their tricks at scale at once, but my assumption may be wrong since I haven’t spoken to any of their key manufacturing personnel. Thanks for reading my article though.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:47:17 +0000

Great article. I think part of what made the Intel Way a success was the fact that early in their history, Intel’s products could initially be sold for a high margin, which gave them the headroom to tolerate screwups, excursions, poor yield, etc. before the competition caught up. By contrast, in cleantech startups, or at least in solar in particular, the margins got sucked out of the business so fast that no one really had a chance to figure things out before they ran out of money. (Some would say that Nanosolar and Miasole had more than enough time, but in their defense, they were developing a fundamentally new semiconductor system that had a lot more quirks than anyone could have predicted.)

So what we have nowadays, with over half the world’s solar panels being made in China and vanishingly few made in the US and Europe, is a world in which the people who are best at manufacturing are largely disconnected from the people who are best at innovating. Something tells me that this cannot persist in the long run: Either Chinese companies will legitimately look to partner with Western companies/labs for new technologies, or more Western companies will pop up along the lines of SunPower, First Solar, Intel, etc. that take the track of innovation and development in the US/Europe, followed by eventual technology transfer to Asia. (Of course, it is also possible that China will figure out how to innovate as well as the West, but to me that would require a transformation of their society at large, something that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.)

Anyway, that’s just my $0.02. Thanks for the thoughtful essay.