Two solar companies made announcements in the past couple of days that continue to portray the progress that the solar industry is making.
SolFocus, a developer of solar concentrator technology (see earlier post) announced that it had closed $25 million in financing that it will use to accelerate large-scale reliability tests, to ramp up its production of solar modules, to secure a long-term supply of photovoltaic cells, and to accelerate development of its second-generation technology. SolFocus' concentrators magnify the light 500 times, which is about the maximum that can be used without generating excessive heat. The startup is ramping up its pilot plant from 3 to 5 megawatts. The company intends to have a 100-megawatt manufacturing facility in India operating at the end of next year. They then intend to replicate that plant in China, Europe and somewhere in the Americas.
Its second-generation concentrator, which will have a higher number of cells and is more compact, is expected in two or three years. SolFocus has signed a volume supply agreement with a leading supplier of high efficiency triple-junction PV cells. The agreement is the largest to date in the CPV industry and will support SolFocus' field test series and first phase of active deployments through 2007. The company, which currently has 15 employees, has 15 positions posted and will be adding another 10 soon.
Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR), producer of String Ribbon wafers (see previous post), announced it second quarter results which included:
- EverQ, their 30 MW German manufacturing joint venture, recorded a net profit for the month of June, its first month of operation.
- The Marlboro factory is running 100 percent on thin wafer (I believe 100 micrometers), setting the stage to begin conversion of EverQ's factory to thin wafer during the third quarter.
- Their Quad Ribbon platform - Evergreen Solar's next-generation technology - has successfully grown thousands of String Ribbon wafers in pilot production.
SolFocus, Palo Alto, CA
Evergreen Solar, Marlboro, MA
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