WHAT: A press conference, following a check signing, will be held when NJIT receives a three-year, $1.5 million grant from Apollo Solar Energy, Inc., a public US corporation, to build a solar research center. Apollo, based in Chengdu, the People’s Republic of China, solely owns and operates the world’s only independent tellurium mine also in China. 

WHEN: Tuesday, March 16, 2010, at 3:30 p.m.

WHERE: Eberhardt Hall NJIT Alumni Center on the NJIT campus.

WHY: The new center will investigate and expand the uses of tellerium in thin film CdTe solar cells.  Tellerium is strategically important in renewable energy. It is one of the two main elements in thin film CdTe solar cells, by far the most cost-effective photovoltaic products on the world market.      

WHO: Speakers will include Apollo CEO, chairman and president Renyi Hou; Ken K. Chin, PhD, a professor in the department of physics at NJIT and center director; NJIT alum Jingong Pan, PhD, an adjunct instructor and center deputy director.

HOW: To attend the press conference, contact Sheryl Weinstein at 973-596-3436.  

BACKGROUND: Apollo Solar Energy, Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Sichuan Apollo Solar Science & Technology Co., Ltd., is primarily involved in the production of Te-based compounds used to produce thin-film solar cells, cell modules, and solar electronic products. The firm refines tellurium (Te) and high-purity tellurium-based metals for specific segments of the global electronic materials market. Its long-term business plan is to become a vertically integrated world leader in materials, modules, and systems integration in CdTe based renewable energy.