Driving down the cost and pounds per kiloWatt (kW).
Revised plans to build a ~1 MW (MegaWatt) pilot power plant in 2010.

From 22nd NREL Industry Growth Forum

Cool Earth Solar CEO Rob Lamkin pitched the company at the 22nd National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Industry Growth Forum last week in Denver, Colorado.

After the introduction, Mr. Lamkin said:

I am very excited about the Cool Earth Solar technology.
It was developed specifically and with the intent of further driving down the cost of solar and being able to ramp up and scale the business massively.

From 22nd NREL Industry Growth Forum

Describing the inflated solar concentrator, Mr. Lamkin highlighted the minimal use of cheap and abundant materials such as plastic thin films to form the concentrator balloon. The balloon is 10 feet (~3.05 meters) across and uses about 2 pounds (~0.91 kilograms) of plastic. Sunlight entering the clear top film is reflected by the inside bottom film onto a water cooled PV (Photovoltaic) receiver resulting in 300 to 600 times concentration depending on the PV material utilized.

Each concentrator can generate over 1 kiloWatt (kW) with active air inflation to maintain focus, a closed loop water system for receiver cooling, and two axis tracking to keep it on sun.

Mr. Lamkin claimed Cool Earth Solar had a huge advantage in minimizing material use and compared Cool Earth’s 120 pounds (54.4 kilograms) per kW to wind turbines which require about 1000 pounds (454 kilograms) per kW.

Comparing Cool Earth Solar to other renewable technologies, Rob Lamkin said:

We believe by next year we’ll be able to clearly demonstrate we are at $1 per Watt installed with a Cool Earth Solar power system. This will allow us to meet fossil fuels and allow us to scale up the business very rapidly.

“Market Size and Revenue Potential: 2015-2020”
The initial market focus of Cool Earth Solar is the six (6) southwestern United States representing a 1028 TWh (TeraWatt-hour) electricity market by 2020 and an unmet RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) mandate of 218 TWh. Cool Earth Solar is targeting around five (5) percent of the southwestern market or 11 TWh per year by 2020 and generating some $1.5 Billion in revenue.

Status and Schedule
After Cool Earth Solar founder, President, and CTO Dr. Eric Cummings bootstrapped and obtained seed funding for the patent filings and the Gen 1 (first generation) prototype, the February 2008 $21 million Series A financing enabled the deployment of Gen 2 prototypes.

Providing a status update, CEO Lamkin said:

Over the summer, once we collected that operating data, we developed and designed our third generation (Gen 3) of the technology and I am excited to report that we are now deploying that out into the field. We plan to collect over the winter and into the spring the very important field data and operations data of our equipment. And with that we believe we will be well poised by spring, early summer next year, to go out and seek our Series B round of financing and seek project financing so that we can ramp up our business. We want to ramp from where we are at today at an ability to do 50 MW a year up to 500 MW a year with the closing of this new financing.

Cool Earth Solar’s 1 MW scale pilot power plant construction plans have therefore been delayed since “Cool Earth Solar Constructing First Solar “Balloon” Prototype Plant” by Ariel Schwartz at CleanTechnica or even the recent “Cool Earth: Inflatable solar technology” by Courtney Roby for GreenMomentum.

Gen 3 prototypes are being deployed now and will be tested through 3Q2010. Around 2Q2010, Cool Earth Solar plans to begin construction of the 1 MW pilot power plant with completion slated for year end 2010. Subsequent plans call for the development, project financing, and construction of a 10 MW plant in 2011 followed by the construction start of a 500 MW plant towards 4Q2012.

From 22nd NREL Industry Growth Forum

Business Model
Cool Earth Solar is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) and will build, own, and operate solar power plants based upon their proprietary Concentrated PhotoVoltaic (CPV) technology. Cool Earth will generate revenue by selling electricity from their solar plants via long term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) or Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) with Investor Owned Utilities (IOU) and Municipal Utilities. In fact, the first 1 MW pilot plant will be equity funded and will seek to leverage Feed-in Tariffs offered by PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) or SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District).

Cool Earth Solar will develop typical projects sized from 10 to 20 MW.

A 10 MW solar plant will cover about 100 acres (40.4 hectares) and can be sited on disturbed land from cattle grazing, farming or other uses. Cool Earth believes the smaller size will facilitate siting closer to load and avoid transmission issues.

Investment Opportunity
Cool Earth Solar plans to seek $75 Million to $90 Million Series B Equity financing in the spring or summer of 2010 and $50 Million Project financing.

Mr. Lamkin expects the first 100 MW of power plants to be 50:50 debt to equity leveraged and said:

What is exciting about 100 MW of Cool Earth Solar power plants is this can produce over $30 Million in revenue each year which gives us a very good payback and provides us more fuel for growth and deploying even more and more MegaWatts of Cool Earth plants.

Answers to the Investor Panel
Here are a summary (not verbatim unless quoted) of select responses by Mr. Lamkin to questions from the VC (Venture Capitalist) dominated investor panel judging his presentation.

Cool Earth Solar will gang projects to do a larger financing of a say 100 MW project pool and at $1 per Watt installed that would represent $100 Million. Series B equity and money left over from Series A will support the equity portion of plant construction.

A 10 MW project will generate $3 Million in revenue per year with $800000 in annual Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs.

“I don’t think we will have to show, to be blunt, any reliability data to utilities.”

“Where we will need to develop and prove out the reliability is when we go to finance the projects. Our key reliability point will be our inflated concentrators.”

“Our project finance model that we’ve developed will replace those plastic thin films each and every year.”

“At $1 per Watt installed and with a 10 MW plant ongoing O&M will be at about $800000 a year, we believe we are well less than $0.13 per kWh [Ed. Note: kiloWatt-hour].”

“I think our cost will be well less than $0.13 a kWh. That what’s we’ll be selling at because that’s the market price. Our O&M is somewhat higher than maybe a PV plant.”

“The wind load on these structures is very light.”

“We’ve designed them to point and track, hold concentration and focus, and make energy up to about 25 miles an hour and then after that our energy production rolls off. In the desert southwest, that occurs during the bright sun like 1% of the time. But it’s an economic analysis and tradeoff.”

“There will be point, I don’t know if it is 2 years down the road or 5 years down the road, where we will definitely be looking at partnerships either with utilities or large customers or looking at licensing. So that will happen. It’s just not what our plan is for the next couple years.”

I spoke with Mr. Lamkin just before his presentation. Once key reason Cool Earth Solar participated in the Forum was to raise their profile with NREL. In addition to the 2009 NREL-Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors Venture Awards cash prizes, the Forum promises in-kind commercialization support from NREL.

From 22nd NREL Industry Growth Forum

Above is a rare photo of the Cool Earth Solar balloon (“inflated solar concentrator”) with an integrated PV receiver from the Radiant Energy website.

From California Clean Tech Open 2009 Launch

The balloon shown by Cool Earth Solar at the California Clean Tech Open 2009 Launch in March was sans PV receiver. I have heard the receiver has been subject to multiple redesigns. However, Mr. Lamkin told me the principle reasons for Gen 3 were rigging and tracking enhancements.

If Cool Earth Solar can achieve their $1 per Watt installed price target, they could become a formidable reverse auction adversary should the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopt their nonsensical Feed-in Tariff reverse auction pricing proposal.

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

As I mentioned in GreenVolts at BIG Solar, I attended the 2nd Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference, BIG Solar: “Utility Scale Solar Power Generation”, to also cover the participation of Cool Earth Solar (CES) on the “Innovations in Technology” panel.

There has been little news from CES since Cool Earth Solar attracts a Hot $21 Million in Series A Financing other than COOL EARTH SOLAR OPENS NEW HEADQUARTERS just before the conference.

Cool Earth Solar, Inc. CEO Rob Lamkin began his reshaping solar energy presentation by sizing world electricity demand at 30,364 TWh (TeraWatt-hours) in 2030 with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 42% from 2008 to 2030. Citing 14.7 TWh of world solar energy production in 2007, the enormity of the opportunity for solar and renewables to address this worldwide electricity demand growth becomes crystal clear.

Recognizing the opportunity, CES is focused on exploiting the scalability of their photovoltaic concentrator solution using plastic thin film (PET or Mylar) instead of metal mirrors and glass envisioning GigaWatt scale power plants.

Two sheets of 25 micron thick plastic films are used to construct the concentrator balloon; one side is aluminized. Once inflated, the aluminum coated side concentrates sunlight at a ratio of 300-350 times onto a solar cell located in the focal area. The solar cell is mounted to a round receiver extended by a boom from the side of the balloon structure.

Photo Credit: Cool Earth Solar, Inc.

The concentrator balloon interconnection system includes active elements for:

• Air inflation (and deflation I expect)
• Water cooling for the solar cells
• A 2-axis tracking control system

Mr. Lamkin said:

Shorter term we’re building our first pilot power plant right now. And that needs to be done like yesterday. And my staff and the team at Cool Earth get tired of hearing me say this truly needs to be done yesterday.

Per Mr. Lamkin, CES will manufacture the Mylar solar concentrator structures. In an audience questions and answers session, Mr. Lamkin stated Cool Earth Solar would begin by using III-V Double and Triple Junction terrestrial solar cells, for example from Emcore, but they plan to later switch to silicon solar cells out of concerns for GigaWatt scalability.

For further information, I have been able to find two Cool Earth Solar patent applications published by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office).

USPTO Patent Application Publication Number US 20080057776
LOW-COST INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR SOLAR ENERGY MODULES AND ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT

USPTO Patent Application Publication Number US 20080047546
INFLATABLE SOLAR CONCENTRATOR BALLOON METHOD AND APPARATUS

In order to view the USPTO images, your browser will require a TIFF image plug-in capable of displaying “TIFF files using ITU T.6 or CCITT Group 4 (G4) compression”. Please see “Patent Full-Page Images” for details. I am using the AlternaTIFF Plug-in (http://www.alternatiff.com/) with Firefox.

I am certain the team at Cool Earth Solar has a solution for this issue:
Mylar balloon sparks power outage by Banks Albach with the Palo Alto Daily News.

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

In COOL EARTH SOLAR CLOSES $21 MILLION SERIES A FINANCING, Cool Earth Solar (CES, http://www.coolearthsolar.com) announced the initial closing of a $21 million Series A round of financing today on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2008. Cool Earth Solar stated additional closings of this round may occur over the next 60 days.

Cool Earth Solar has developed a proprietary Concentrated PhotoVoltaic (CPV) technology that the company claims will achieve radical reductions in the material cost and weight of CPV versus competing high concentration photovoltaic systems. Furthermore, Cool Earth Solar will use their CPV technology to develop, build, and own solar power plants that can compete with conventional fossil fuel fired power plants.

Photo Credit: Cool Earth Solar

Dr. Eric Cummings, founder of Cool Earth Solar said:

Our goal from the very start was to find a clean energy generation solution that could address the global scale of the carbon problem. We discarded everything that couldn’t scale, relied on rare components, or had some other critical bottleneck. Ultimately, we developed a novel technology which radically reduces the amount of material in our system and balances labor and capital costs.

And Cool Earth Solar Chief Executive Officer, Rob Lamkin said:

Cool Earth Solar power plants will produce electricity at a cost lower than natural gas-fueled plants. Our innovative solar technology delivers economically as well as environmentally. We will apply the funding towards expanding our team, developing our technology, and building our state-of-the-art solar power plants. We are actively seeking exceptional engineers, scientists, and manufacturing designers.

Please see the label Cool Earth Solar for previous posts about the company.

The California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) released the following information about CES two days early in the Tuesday, February 12, 2008, California Clean Tech Open Newsletter:

CoolEarth, a 2006 Runner-Up of the Renewables Prize, inks deal for $21 million in private funding.
CoolEarth Solar, our 2006 runner-up for the California Investor Owned Utilities Renewable Prize (PG&E, SDG&E and SCE) has engineered a cost efficient solar power plant that competes economically with conventional fuels. Their new technology combines traditional photovoltaics with a new inflatable concentrator. The mirror concentrator is unique because it uses inflatable mirrors that are 400 times cheaper than polished aluminum mirrors. CCTO Founding Partner Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati assisted CoolEarth in closing the round.
www.coolearthsolar.com

The third annual 2008 California Clean Tech Open Launch will occur on April Fool’s Day, April 1, 2008, at the San Jose City Hall located in downtown San Jose, California USA. Details on the event hosted by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed will be posted in early March 2008 to the CCTO website, www.cacleantech.com.

While I cannot confirm this, I heard from a confidential source the animated video titled Inflatable Solar Collectors on YouTube (or see Solar Light Flashes: July 22, 2007) was developed independent of Cool Earth Solar by a solar enthusiast at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a Lucasfilm Ltd. company.

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

The Solar Light Flashes format allows me to address news or observations that don’t require a full post.

Cool Earth Solar
Cool Earth Solar (CES, http://www.coolearthsolar.com) has revamped their website and is reshaping solar energy. I heard from CEO Rob Lamkin that CES Senior Team member, Dr. Aurelius Prochazka, co-author of RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails, was involved with the implementation. Back on August 24, 2007, the press release, COOL EARTH SOLAR FILES PATENTS FOR SOLAR TECHNOLOGY, demonstrates CSE efforts to protect their Intellectual Property (IP). And Cool Earth Solar in the News was nice enough to link to my post, Cool Earth Solar emerges from Stealth Mode.

GreenVolts Inc.
On Tuesday, November 27, 2007, Kevin Fine, Director of Product Development, GreenVolts, will present Solar Energy Technologies: Emphasis on Concentrating Photovoltaic Technologies, at the California PUC (CPUC) Building, Golden Gate Room, 505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, California USA, from Noon – 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time). This event is sponsored by the San Francisco Power Engineering Chapter of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.). Non-member cost and RSVP details are here.

RenewableEnergyAccess.com
As the Photovoltaic Blogger, reporting on the media is one of my easiest tasks. With rare exception, media never reports on the competition. While I jumped on the news of Intersolar North America 2008, RenewableEnergyAccess.com chose not to report on this significant new event but passed on this Industry Press Release, Record Early Sales of Solar Power 2008 Reflects Growth Trajectory of U.S. Solar Industry, post haste. Could it be because Solar Power 2008 is an advertiser and Media Partner?

RSI Silicon
I noticed RSI (Reaction Sciences Inc.) Silicon Products won the ICE 2007 Ignite Clean Energy Business Presentation Competition during my research into Wakonda Technologies. Per the RSI Silicon website:

Dr. Steve Amendola, along with his experienced team, has commenced building the first plant. It is envisaged that production at the 5,000 metric tonne per annum plant based in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, will commence Q2 2008.

Also notable here is:

RSI will be using low cost raw materials for processing solar grade silicon and not the Metallurgical Grade Si >

even though Northampton is in rust belt steel country. I can only presume they will use a precursor with Silicon as a component unless they have developed a Silicon Replicator technology?

Here is the RSI Silicon ICE 2007 PowerPoint presentation and top Ten Finalist video by Newfangler Productions.

SunPower Corporation
On October 22, 2007, SunPower announced SunPower Names Brad Davis as Chief Marketing Officer. Towards the end of this press release, SunPower CEO Tom Werner said:

I am also pleased to announce that Peter Aschenbrenner will be assuming a new role as vice president, corporate strategy, continued Werner. In this position Peter will have responsibility for strategy, business development, and management of SunPower’s product portfolio. Peter has been the primary architect of SunPower’s strategy since 2003, and with three decades of solar industry experience he is uniquely qualified to help us capitalize on emerging global opportunities.

To date, I have not seen an official resolution of Peter Aschenbrenner under SEC investigation in AstroPower Saga. Could this move be a second step towards a quiet exit for Mr. Aschenbrenner from SunPower?

8. Forum Solarpraxis
I am looking forward to covering this Solarpraxis AG (FRA:SPA) event again next week on November 22-23, 2007, in Berlin, Germany. Here is the program (Deutsch). I am keen to checkout and report on this presentation:

International Solar Silicon Production – an Overview
John R. Mott, COO of Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d., Ruse (Slovenia)

on Friday, November 23, 2007, at 14:30. I have requested access to select closed Analyst Conferences in advance to avoid a repeat of SOLON AG CEO Kicks PV Blogger Out of Analyst Conference. SOLON is not on my list.

Try entering the URL http://www.guntherportfolio.com and see where it takes you. I wonder what purpose this could serve?

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

Intersolar 2007 and 2006 California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) companies have dominated Blog coverage over the past month. It’s time to get back to covering staple companies and topics although there are follow up Intersolar 2007 and PV Industry Forum 2007 posts plus SEMICON West coverage in the works.

Applied Materials:
Applied Materials Names Chris Eberspacher to Lead Advanced Solar Research and Development lends support to the notion that things may not be so rosy at Nanosolar. Dr. Eberspacher left Nanosolar just over one month ago.

Blue Square Energy (BSE):
Alan Swanson Joins Blue Square Energy as Vice President of Manufacturing Operations bringing thirty years of experience from Tyco Electronics and the former AMP, Inc. To complete the management team in preparation for a potential IPO, BSE needs to name a VP of Engineering or CTO or both.

CMC Magnetics Corp:
Following the Moser Baer model, CMC Magnetics, the largest Taiwanese maker of optical media, is setting up a subsidiary, Sun Well Technology, to produce thin film solar modules in Taiwan. Information from industry sources (rumors) allege the 100MWp facility will be equipped by Oerlikon Solar.

Cool Earth Solar:
I stumbled on this video animation titled Inflatable Solar Collectors on YouTube. I don’t know the origin of the animation, but this appears genuine.

HyCore:
Norsk Hydro ASA (NYSE:NHY) and the Umicore Group (EBR:UMI) have formed the HyCore joint venture to produce solar grade silicon from metallurgical silicon using a process first researched by Umicore. €26 million will be invested to construct a 20 metric ton pilot plant at Herøya, in Porsgrunn, Norway, by 2008. If proven successful, a larger facility will be constructed at the same site to produce industrial scale volumes by 2010.

Umicore has about 90% market share in Germanium (Ge) substrate wafers required for compound semiconductors like III-V Triple Junction solar cells used in High Concentration Photovoltaic systems.

NJCEP:
Updated CORE Queues every two weeks now? CORE Queue > 10kw July 13, 2007 (greater than 10kW), CORE Queue <= 10kw July 13, 2007 (less than or equal to 10kW), Public Non K-12 Schools CORE Queue July 13, 2007, and Public K-12 Schools CORE Queue July 13, 2007 are available. An Updated 2007 CORE Budget July 13, 2007 shows the under funded status details of the main CORE Queues, and the Comment Summary: New Jersey Renewable Energy Solar Market Transition Straw Proposal has a number of company and policy centric comments and counter proposals.

A fresh new look for the NJCEP website is due by August 1, 2007.

Oerlikon Solar:
I heard Oerlikon Solar was briefing press (though not this blogger!) about a significant announcement. I have no idea what it is, but speculations include ersol or Schott in official production, more new orders like CMC Magnetics, or could Micromorph tools be shipping?

Solar Newsletter No. 2, July 17, 2007, was distributed at SEMICON West but is not yet on the Oerlikon Solar website at post time.

PV Cycle:
Per the EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association) Newsletter, SOLARIS, the PV CYCLE association created on 5th July 2007 by founding members: Avancis, BSW, Conergy, EPIA, Isofotón, Schott Solar, SolarWorld, and Sulfurcell. An executive board was appointed to prepare for the first General Assembly meeting of the PV Cycle association scheduled for September 18, 2007, in Brussels, Belgium. Interested companies are welcome to apply for membership in the PV CYCLE association and membership information should be forthcoming to EPIA members.

Sol3g, S.L.:
In Sol3g makes a 1 kWp pilot installation financed by Solúcar, an Abengoa subsidiary, the company announced an agreement with Solúcar Energia, S.A., for a 1kWp (kilowatt-peak) HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaic) system pilot installation. Another 20kWp of HCPV modules (M40?) will be supplied for mounting on Solúcar’s own two-axis tracker. Both of these systems will be located in the Solar Platform of Sanlúcar la Mayor, Sevilla, Spain.

SunPower:
And SunPower CEO Tom Werner Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 Award Recipient in Northern California would not be my first choice since I believe the PowerLight acquisition is an expensive distraction from increasing SunPower’s production of the highest efficiency, back contact, monocrystalline solar cells and modules. Why was Ernst & Young LLP not disclosed as being the independent auditor of PowerLight Corporation’s financials from 2005 and 2006? Although the award claims to use a panel of independent judges, how were the initial nominations made?

The SPR-315 datasheet is now online at the SunPower website.

Given the accelerated velocity of photovoltaic and solar activity, I don’t envy publications trying to cover every aspect of the PV Industry. I’ll stick with this Blog’s established format of looking for areas less covered or where I can add insight and commentary.

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

Mr. Rob Lamkin is Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Eric Cummings is President and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of the new Cool Earth Solar parent company.

Per Mr. Lamkin:

The integrated company now has a stronger platform from which to advance its break-through technology and quickly bring it to market. Negotiations are on-going with several utilities to sell clean renewable solar energy from its utility scale power plants.

For more information about Cool Earth Solar’s CPV technology, see the CES entry at the Pure Energy Systems Wiki (PESWiki) or download the CoolEarth Solar Power 2006 Presentation that I wrote about in California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses Solar Power 2006.

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

Cool Earth Solar (CES) has completed first round financing raising almost $1 million in capital. Part of this was first reported in VentureBeat as Cool Earth Solar raises $750,000 for solar power concentration technology. I cite them even though VentureBeat does not cite my posting firsts.

In addition, Mr. Rob Lamkin, Mr. Jon Bonanno, and Dr. Eric Cummings, the CES founder, have been appointed to the Cool Earth Solar Board of Directors.

CES is implementing their business plan and developing project proposals for a variety of utility company renewable energy solicitations or RFOs (Request For Offers). The first utility scale power plants using CES technology are expected to begin construction in early 2008 with renewable solar electricity production slated for year end.

In an informal comment, Dr. Eric Cummings said:

Things are hopping around here.

Cool Earth Solar was the 2006 runner up in the California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) Renewables Prize category. I first wrote a short blurb about Cool Earth Solar in California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses Solar Power 2006, when they presented their CCTO business plan to the Solar Power 2006 Conference after the Governor.

I noticed a spike in search hits for Cool Earth Solar back in late February, and l guessed this activity was related to venture investor interest. Since then, I have had a patient dialog with Dr. Cummings hoping to land an exclusive story or interview at the appropriate time.

GUNTHER Portfolio may have helped Mr. Lamkin in the initial discovery process with Cool Earth Solar. Thanks again to CES for this announcement prequel.

©2010 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.