Archive for the ‘GreenVolts’ Category

Saturday, August 22, 2009 12:35 pm | Edgar A. Gunther | 2 Comments »

GreenVolts GV1: Demolition Man

[Byron, California USA] From GreenVolts GV1: Demolition Man Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) systems firm demolishes CarouSol trackers. CarouSol is dead. Long live GreenVolts? I was pushed the press release, “GreenVolts Names Solar and High Tech Industry Veteran as Vice President of Engineering”, on Wednesday. My first thought was what’s going on at GV1? Since I happened, alright arranged, to be near Byron, I could not resist the temptation to investigate. As suggested in “GreenVolts Jolts Concentrating PhotoVoltaic (CPV) Business Plans”, the CarouSol trackers installed at GV1 are just now being scrapped. Demolition Man was the headline that came to mind when I saw the CarouSol field being ripped

Posted in GreenVolts, HCPV, PGE
Friday, April 10, 2009 1:06 am | Edgar A. Gunther | 3 Comments »

GreenVolts Jolts Concentrating PhotoVoltaic (CPV) Business Plans

Bob Cart is out as Chairman and CEO. Radical redesign may be underway departing from signature Power Unit and CarouSol. GP Note: First, let me caution that my information for this post has been gleaned from confidential and anonymous sources. I’ve been investigating these claims for the past two weeks, and I am convinced I have the basic facts straight. Two weeks ago Friday, Bob Cart was forced out as GreenVolts, Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Chief Financial Officer Gary Beasley is now acting CEO as an

Posted in GreenVolts, HCPV, PGE
Friday, February 20, 2009 1:53 am | Edgar A. Gunther | 1 Comment »

In Search of GreenVolts GV1 – Part 2

A new glimpse of the HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaics) project. [Byron, California USA] Earlier this month, I had a chance to revisit the GreenVolts, Inc. GV1 site I first posted about In Search of GreenVolts GV1. This wasn’t part of a grand design; I just happened to be in the area and couldn’t resist. Below is a YouTube video of the GV1 site. I didn’t notice during the visit, and it took prompting by GreenVolts until I realized the “staged materials” towards the southeast corner of Phase 1 were CarouSol units. I zoomed in on these towards the middle of the video without knowing. The SpyCamSystems

Posted in GreenVolts, HCPV, PGE
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:06 am | Edgar A. Gunther | 3 Comments »

In Search of GreenVolts GV1

[Byron, California USA]

View Larger Map

Interconnected and waiting for approval to flip the switch.But on how much photovoltaic capacity?

Two weekends ago, I made an impromptu visit to the GreenVolts, Inc., GV1 site located in Byron, California USA, as shown in the above Google Map. Following over one month later in the foot steps of Matt Nauman, author of “GreenVolts: something new under the sun near Tracy”, I expected to see significant progress on the first 1 MW (MegaWatt) phase of the 2 MW HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaics) project. Instead I was disappointed.

After passing the site on Kelso Road, I thought this must be it, but I wasn’t positive. I was only able to reconfirm the location across from the Western… Read More >>

Posted in GreenVolts, HCPV, PGE
Thursday, October 16, 2008 5:47 pm | Edgar A. Gunther | 2 Comments »

GreenVolts CarouSol debuts at Solar Power International 2008

[San Diego, California USA] Can’t Photo (Touch) This! As suggested in my Solar Power International 2008 Preview post, GreenVolts, Inc., did indeed display a CarouSol unit for the first time, and a sparse CarouSol datasheet is also available. On Tuesday, October 14, 2008, right after the Expo opened at 10AM, I headed straight to the GreenVolts stand to check out their exhibit. I was not disappointed to see a crowd gawking at a complete GreenVolts CarouSol unit. Up close, my first photo was of the receiver unit

Monday, May 12, 2008 11:57 am | Edgar A. Gunther | 3 Comments »

GreenVolts at BIG Solar

[Menlo Park, California USA]

Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference on “Utility Scale Solar Power Generation”

The 2nd Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference, BIG Solar: “Utility Scale Solar Power Generation”, took place Wednesday afternoon, May 7, 2008, at SRI International. Although the agenda included keynotes and a first panel discussion on "California's Policy Leadership", my focus was on the second panel, "Innovations in Technology", with presentations by Blog stalwarts GreenVolts and Cool Earth Solar (CES).

For GreenVolts, I will highlight updates and deltas from GreenVolts presents at Alternative Energy Innovations 2007.

For the PG&E GV1 project, the 1MW (MegaWatt) Phase 1 is now scheduled for completion by the end of 2008, one quarter later

Monday, November 19, 2007 4:07 pm | Edgar A. Gunther | 4 Comments »

ISFOC Awards 1.3MW of Concentrator PhotoVoltaic power plants

Concentración Solar La Mancha S.L., EMCORE Corp., Arima Eco, and Sol3g submitted the winning bids.

The ISFOC, Instituto de Sistemas Fotovoltaicos de Concentración S.A. or Institute of Concentration Photovoltaics Systems, Board of Directors awarded the 13 Concentrator PhotoVoltaic (CPV) pilot power plants at their last meeting. These awards complete the tender for the second phase of ISFOC’s 3MW (MegaWatt) CPV pilot plant program detailed in the previous post, ISFOC 1.3MW CPV Power Plant tenders made public. The terse ISFOC announcement is here.

Including two (2) Spanish firms, here are the 1.3MW award details:

Concentración Solar La Mancha S.L. (ES)

Thursday, November 15, 2007 6:27 am | Edgar A. Gunther | 2 Comments »

Solar Light Flashes: November 15, 2007

Select Photovoltaic News Tidbits

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

Cool Earth SolarCool 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

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 5:44 am | Edgar A. GuntherComments Off

2007 California Clean Tech Open Final Awards Event Gala

[San Francisco, California USA]

1-Solar wins Renewables PrizeGreenVolts, Inc. announces $10 Million Series A Funding

The Academy Awards of Clean Tech, aka the Awards Ceremony for the 2007 CALIFORNIA CLEAN TECH OPEN, took place last night on Monday, October 29, 2007, at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco, California USA.

In the Renewables Category, 1-Solar was the winner of the Renewables Prize (one of six CCTO Category prizes) and Tahoe Water Systems was the runner up.

1-Solar, Inc. claims to have halved the cost and doubled the life of DC to AC inverters for solar photovoltaic system applications. 1-Solar’s President Tranh Nguyen makes his acceptance

Posted in 1-Solar, CCTO, GreenVolts
Friday, October 26, 2007 8:37 am | Edgar A. Gunther | 1 Comment »

GreenVolts presents at Alternative Energy Innovations 2007

[Redwood City, California USA]

CCTO 2007 Alumni Award won by GreenVolts

GreenVolts, Inc. founder and CEO Bob Cart delivered a crisp company Utility Scale Solar presentation on Wednesday, October 24, 2007, at the Dow Jones VentureWire Alternative Energy Innovations 2007 conference in Redwood City, California.

In a succinct summary of the GreenVolts business model, Mr. Cart said:

We sell energy not solar panels.

GreenVolts and PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) entered into a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the GV1 High Concentration PhotoVoltaic (HCPV) power plant as I reported in GreenVolts does it again with 2MW Solar Electric Plant deal

Posted in CCTO, GreenVolts, HCPV, PGE