Silicon Valley Solar reaches agreement with German GSS on Sol-X2 solar modules
Silicon Valley Solar Secures Agreement with Award Winning German Photovoltaic Module Manufacturer
GSS (Gebäude-Solarsysteme GmbH) To Produce Sol-XTM Flat-Plate Concentrator Modules at Their Fully Certified Facility in Eastern Germany
January 24, 2007, SANTA CLARA, Calif.
source: Businesswire
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070124005010&newsLang=en
Silicon Valley Solar announced today that they have finalized an agreement with GSS that will accelerate the market introduction of the company’s Sol-X2 internal concentrator solar modules. The contract defines specific product, process and equipment development that will be executed by GSS to ensure that SV Solar’s module design can be seamlessly produced on the GSS manufacturing line.
“This is an important milestone in the scale-up of our company,” offered Dave Shannahan, president of SV Solar. “We have been evaluating potential manufacturing partners to enable us to meet the demand for our module technology on an accelerated schedule. This agreement is a perfect complement to the 10MW purchase order we secured from Pacific Power Management in December.”
“We’ve had extensive meetings with a wide variety of solar industry leaders in Germany, and GSS came highly recommended as an ideal partner to produce our Sol-X modules,” added Patrick Callinan, CEO of SV Solar. “They are an integral part of the German solar industry, having won numerous awards and provided innovative solutions for companies such as Conergy AG, Q-Cells AG and Shell Solar GmbH.”
GSS, established in 1992, has broad experience with all current solar technologies. The company has participated in many innovative projects and has won numerous awards for architectural and engineering excellence. Certifications include IEC 61215 compliance issued by the German Technical Control Board, DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 (quality management), successful validation to DIN EN 14001 (environmental management) and EMAS II (equivalent to EC Regulation 761/2001).
“Conergy has a long-standing relationship with GSS and a strategic partnership in R&D with SV Solar,” said Monika Leiner, head of sourcing for the PV Modules Global Technology Team at Conergy AG. “Their 15-year history of developing customized solutions has proven beneficial through several cooperative projects. We believe GSS is a natural fit to partner with SV Solar to produce their novel PV technology.”
While Sol-X modules are form, fit and functionally compatible with standard flat plate modules, some modifications are required to utilize a standard PV manufacturing line. This agreement includes an extensive joint development component whereby the SV Solar engineering team will be working closely with the team at GSS to apply the modifications necessary to adapt the equipment and process to the Sol-X design. SV Solar will have full rights to this development for use in producing modules at GSS or any other manufacturing facility as appropriate. GSS has the capacity to produce nearly 100,000 modules per year (16MWp), and it is anticipated that the company will represent a significant portion of SV Solar’s initial annual production.
“GSS is very enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with SV Solar to commercialize their Sol-X design,” said Joachim Höhne, General Manager. “We believe this technology has great promise to lower the overall cost of solar energy, while reducing the strain on silicon supply. While Sol-X can leverage a great deal of our existing equipment and manufacturing process, our deep experience in module engineering and process design, combined with the expertise of the SV Solar team, will enable GSS to efficiently adapt our existing infrastructure to this new product.”
Production samples from the new venture are anticipated to ship in late Q1 of this year, with volume ramping up over the latter half of 2007.
About Silicon Valley Solar, Inc.
Incorporated in 2006, SV Solar is a manufacturer of flat plate internal concentrator solar modules. SV Solar was founded by Patrick Callinan, President and CEO of Silicon Valley Microelectronics (SVM). SVM has been supplying silicon wafers and feedstock to the semiconductor and solar industries very profitably for the past 16 years, and created SV Solar as a natural evolution to meet the demands of an increasingly thriving solar market. SV Solar has developed a unique solar module technology utilizing an advanced internal concentrator, marketed under the Sol-XTM brand.
About GSS (Gebäude-Solarsysteme GmbH)
GSS is a leading specialty manufacturer of photovoltaic modules based in Thuringia, Germany. Established in 1992, GSS has provided solutions for the leading PV companies in Germany and around the world. Part of the East Thuringian Center for Renewable Energies, GSS has engineering, materials and manufacturing expertise with a current capacity to produce 16MWp of solar modules per year.