Solar Technology Supplier SCI Engineered Materials Receives $2.1M in Loans to Expand Business and Create Jobs

SCI Engineered Materials, Inc., a Columbus-based developer and manufacturer of advanced materials, has received final approval from the State of Ohio for two loans that will help the company expand its capacity for manufacturing ceramic materials used in thin film solar panels. 

Totaling approximately $2.1 million, the loans are being made through the Ohio Department of Development and the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority’s 166 Direct Loan programs.  SCI will invest an additional $900,000 to complete the $3 million capital expansion plan, which is anticipated to nearly triple the company’s workforce over the next three years. 

Though solar power is just now coming into its own as a viable source of alternative energy, it was the vision of SCI’s founder, the late Dr. Edward Funk, Sc.D., 23 years ago, that set the company on its current path to be ready to take advantage of this emerging market today.   

Dr. Funk, formerly a professor of metallurgy at Ohio State, saw significant potential for newly discovered high temperature superconductive materials.  Starting first with high temperature superconductive powders and then expanding into other advanced materials, Dr. Funk’s company was soon involved in the manufacture of components for industries including batteries, photovoltaics, flat panel displays, and semiconductors.   
Today, SCI manufactures components for use in the thin film photovoltaic solar panel industry.  Representing 18-20 percent of the solar market, thin film is the fastest growing sector of this emerging market. 

“Dr. Funk envisioned SCI as a company that would develop and commercialize materials and processing technology to serve new high growth markets,” said Bob Baker, an SCI Engineered Materials board member. 
 Not only is SCI in the right business at the right time, but according to its president and CEO, Dan Rooney, the company is also in the right place at the right time. 

“With assets such as Ohio State, Battelle, EWI and others, Central Ohio is a regional center for materials science R&D,” says Rooney.  “More importantly, programs such as the Ohio Third Frontier help commercialize these advanced technologies into viable, sustainable companies capable of creating jobs and growing the economy.” 

SCI has been the recipient of two Third Frontier grants relating to solar --the first an award specially for commercializing ceramic materials used in thin film solar panels. 
“Support from the State of Ohio has been critical to SCI being able to take full advantage of this market opportunity,” says Rooney. 

Ohio has been rapidly advancing its position in the solar industry.  In fact, the world’s largest manufacturer of thin film solar panels, First Solar, has a large facility in Ohio and Xunlight, during the last few years, opened a manufacturing facility near Toledo. 

“SCI is a prime example of how innovation, vision and dedication coupled with strategic business acumen and the proper support, can help transform our economy,” says Ted Ford, president and CEO of TechColumbus.   “It also underscores an important way that OSU fuels our regional tech economy by attracting innovators such as Ed Funk who start new companies.”
 

For more information, see the release from SCI Engineered Materials.