U.S. Solar Industry Forms a Coordinated Team, Creates U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium

May 7th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

It’s no secret, with size comes power. Now, the solar industry has been growing by leaps and bounds, but it is going up against a large, traditional fossil fuel industry that is several times bigger. While healthy competition is useful in some ways, solar companies could benefit from some more cooperation as well, and a number of them have recognized that.

Furthermore, with cleantech one of the biggest if not the biggest investment and growth category in the world (and solar a leader in that realm), companies all over the place are trying to take the lead and capitalize on that. In order to try to stake out their territory and remain a global leader, a number of U.S. solar companies and industry players have banded together, and thin-film is apparently a key technology they are focusing on. Here’s more from TechCrunch:

The U.S. solar industry is banding together to fend off an onslaught of global competition, and to lower the cost of manufacturing solar technology domestically. To make it happen, the newly formed U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC) secured a $57.5 million federal grant from the Department of Energy Sunshot Initiative, along with financial commitments totaling $400 million from various state and corporate entities…. They are focused on thin film, or copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) technology in particular.

On Friday, the PVMC announced its founding members. The list is quite broad, spanning technologies and sectors. Here’s who’s in to start:

Research & Development

· College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE)

· SEMATECH

· IBM

· National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

· Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

· University of Central Florida (UCF)

· Benet Labs Material Suppliers

· Indium

· Saint Gobain

· Momentive

· Mallinckrodt Baker

· Matheson TriGas CIGS Solar Equipment

· Veeco Instruments

· Technic

· Precision Flow Technologies

· Spire

· Infinity Precision

· Schiller

· Ulvac

· Mustang Solar

· Newport Metrology

· Solar Metrology

· FEI

· JA Woolam

· PDF Module Producers & Integrators

· Magnolia Solar

· Global Solar

· Alteris

· EYP/energy

· CG Power

· Amelio Solar

· CH2M Hill

· solo Power End-users

· National Grid

· New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)

You have to love this observations from TechCrunch: “It’s high-tech collaborative consumption.”

These various PVMC members will be sharing “high-tech facilities and equipment, and academic resources” on University of Albany and University of Central Florida campuses. Looks like an excellent collaboration that could go a long way in advancing solar energy technology, and in the U.S. in particular.

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