It takes a vacuum

Abound’s manufacturing process has two main parts, and takes place in two different parts of the building. As we walk down the hall to the birth of a photovoltaic module, we pass a series of windows. On the other side, running the hall’s length, is a long, black rectangular chamber, which we later come to learn is a vacuum chamber, the crux of Abound’s method for creating low-cost, thin-film photovoltaics.

According to Weinstein, Abound custom-makes its vacuum chambers.

“We build these all ourselves, because we don’t want any single vendor to have all of the designs. We consider it a very secret process,” she said. The company had to lease a secondary facility to manufacture vacuum chambers for the new production lines being built for the Longmont facility. A process that Weinstein said was very far along.

It’s quiet until we reach the end of the hall. Machinery rumbles behind a steel door. Weinstein opens the door to the roar of a busy manufacturing plant. The large tan, rectangular machine making the racket is a station where specially prepared glass is cleaned and the process of making an Abound Solar module begins.

Story continues here.