By Kari Williamson

The purchase price consisted of US$60 million in cash paid to Confluence Solar’s shareholders at closing and an additional US$20m of cash earn-outs payable upon the achievement of certain financial and technical milestones through GT’s FY13.

“This acquisition adds an innovative technology to GT’s PV product portfolio that is well aligned with our strategy to rapidly innovate and develop next-generation crystal growth solutions,” says Tom Gutierrez, GT Advanced Technologies President and CEO.

“PV manufacturers are focusing more closely on increasing cell efficiency as a way to lower the cost of solar energy. Confluence’s HiCz™ technology is expected to drive down the cost of monocrystalline wafers below traditional Czochralski methods while enabling flexible production of advanced materials used in next generation cell architectures. Similar to our strategy deployed in the acquisition of Crystal Systems, our primary goal is to become a major equipment supplier to the CCz monocrystalline market by commercializing the technology that we have acquired. We expect to launch a commercial CCz mono equipment offering in our fiscal year 2013.”