1

Chevron breaks ground on Concentrix Solar CPV project

1 MegaWatt (MW) Concentrator PhotoVoltaic (CPV) plant is a pilot demonstration for a period of five years.

Concentrix Solar plans to build a US manufacturing facility.

“New Mexico puts old mine to solar use” by Candace Lombardi at the CNET news.com Green Tech Blog presaged the event. Although I contacted the Communications Office of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the Concentrix Solar division of the Soitec Group (EPA:SOI), Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV), and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), the

    2

Soitec Group acquires Concentrix Solar

Good Energies and Abengoa Solar, S.A. find a €34 million Concentrated PhotoVoltaic (CPV) exit.

“Soitec expands into the fast growing solar energy market with the acquisition of Concentrix Solar, the leading provider of CPV solar systems for the industrial production of energy” (Deutsch) with the transaction closing Friday, December 11, 2009.

Soitec SA (EPA:SOI) CEO and President Dr. André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé commented on the announcement via a same day conference call (webcast replay available until December 18, 2009) joined by the Director of the Fraunhofer ISE Professor Eicke Weber and Concentrix Solar CEO Hansjörg Lerchenmüller. I recommend reviewing the longer version of the matched presentation, Soitec Enters Fast Growing Concentrated Photovoltaic Market.

    7

SPI 09: Concentrating PhotoVoltaics Highlights

CPV News from MASDAR trumps Solar Power International 09.

I was looking forward to the SPI 09 Concentrating Photovoltaics (CPV) session moderated by Greentech Media Senior Analyst Eric Wesoff. For once, I had a few questions prepared in advance. When I sat down, I thought I was being mercenary sitting right next to the microphone front and center. However, as questions were opened to the floor, I still had to rush to beat out two other inquisitors to ask the first question.

SolFocus, Inc.
Q: Ed Gunther (moi!) said: “I have a question for Mr. Crowley. I was wondering if you could give us an update on the project with the Samaras Group. I believe it was supposed to start installing in the summer, and there’s supposed be power delivery by

    1

Solar Light Flashes: 24th EU PVSEC Edition

Select Photovoltaic News Tidbits from the 24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition.

It’s been like forever (1 year, 8 months, 10 days) since my last Solar Light Flashes. I’ve always planned to resurrect the haphazard post. Twitter delayed the return but sometimes 140 characters are insufficient.

centrotherm photovoltaics AG (ETR:CTN)

Only the Photovoltaic (PV) Industry plasters roadmaps or manufacturing costs on exhibition stand signage. The last official centrotherm CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) news was “Success in the thin film division: centrotherm photovoltaics achieves 13 percent efficiency for mass production”. Tom Cheyney chatted with centrotherm in “EU PVSEC short takes: Talking CIGS turnkey, eyeballing a Nanosolar panel, and more” at PV-tech.org.

   

24th EU PVSEC: 2009 Becquerel Prize Awarded

[Hamburg, Germany]

From 24th EU PVSEC

Dr. Andreas Bett awarded the 17th Becquerel Prize for the successful development of photovoltaic concentrator technology.
The Prize is named after French physicist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel (1820-1891) who discovered the photovoltaic effect in 1839 at age 19.
During the opening session of the 24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Dr. Andreas [...]

    1

Concentrix Solar installs UCSD test system

From Intersolar North America

5.75 kiloWatt (kW) Concentrator PhotoVoltaic (CPV) system with new, optimized CX-75 modules.
Part of Concentrix Solar’s US market entry strategy.
Although I tweeted about the development last week, the cooperation with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), was disclosed earlier by Concentrix Solar in a presentation at the 5th Germany California Solar Day.
“Concentrix [...]

    4

Intersolar North America

[San Francisco, California USA]
Observing the obvious.
I managed to spend some time at Intersolar North America 2009 this week in San Francisco.
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

From Intersolar North America

The big news was US President Barack Obama somehow finding the time to visit Applied Materials before the Major League Baseball 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis, Missouri. A [...]