CPV Industry Consortium Formed to Steer Rapid Growth in Solar Industry

Founding Members Include Concentrix Solar, Emcore, ISFOC, Isofoton, and SolFocus

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 25 -- Founding members today announced the establishment of an industry organization -- the CPV Consortium -- focused on supporting the development and optimizing the success of concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) as a mainstream energy source. The CPV Consortium is a global organization comprised of members from all segments of the CPV industry, which uses mirrors and lenses to concentrate sunlight onto high efficiency solar cells in order to generate more solar electricity from dramatically less photovoltaic material. Membership is open to all companies and institutions that have a vested interest in advancing the CPV industry.

Founding members include Concentrix Solar (Germany), Emcore (USA), ISFOC
(Spain), Isofoton (Spain) and SolFocus (USA) who have been working on the creation of this organization for the past 12 months.
Developments in the CPV area have been extensive in the past few years, fueled by the efforts of innovative companies contributing to all aspects of this emerging next generation photovoltaic technology. "Today CPV is on the cusp of delivering on its promise of low-cost, reliable solar-generated electricity that will be cost competitive with traditional energy sources," explained Nancy Hartsoch, Director of the CPV Consortium and VP of Marketing for SolFocus. "The challenge now is to assure that a proper foundation and infrastructure is in place to support CPV, which is why we are pleased to have a broad and expanding membership which will include cell and material suppliers, panel suppliers, tracker companies, integrators, power generators, universities and government organizations, among others." Veeco and 3M, leading equipment and materials suppliers to the CPV industry, have also joined the Consortium as charter members.
Dr. Pedro Banda, Director General of founding member ISFOC commented on the organization. "The CPV consortium is a key instrument to allow for this growth, bringing together all key industrial and R&D players. It is with this type of commitment that we all can ensure the future of this technology, becoming a major trend and providing global solutions for the deployment of renewable energies. ISFOC is committed together with the industrial players to support their technology and product developments and serve as their test bed. This consortium will help bringing CPV up to the pace at which the PV market is growing across the world."
"With its outstanding efficiencies CPV technology has an immense potential for lowering costs of solar electricity," commented Hansjorg Lerchenmuller, CEO of Concentrix Solar. "In order to fully exploit the potential of the technology we need to join forces throughout the whole CPV industry."
Membership is available at several levels including Charter Membership which includes a seat on the steering committee, General Membership, and Informational Membership. Governmental, University and non-profit memberships are available on an invitation-only basis. Interested parties should contact the Consortium at info@cpvconsortium.org for more information.
"It is crucial for the companies participating in the CPV industry to collaborate and ensure that this technology meets and exceeds the cost and performance requirements of the global energy market. The CPV Consortium is the mechanism where the industry leadership will partner to ensure Concentrating PV systems reach their full market potential," explained David Danzilio, VP and GM for Emcore's Space and Terrestrial Solar Products. Vincente Diaz, CPV Business Manager for ISOFOTON S.A. added, "CPV technology means a cost effective and reliable product in the PV sector. The mature technologies present in CPV allow big improvements in terms of system efficiencies. It is the right moment for joining in a powerful team that could boost CPV technology market presence in the short term."
The CPV Consortium has just launched its membership drive. The group will be having informational meetings at Solar Power International '08 in San Diego October 14-16, 2008, and will also be leading a preconference workshop -- CPV 101 -- on Monday, October 13. For more information on the workshop,
visit www.solarpowerconference.com.

For more information on the consortium or to download a membership application go to www.cpvconsortium.org.
ABOUT CONCENTRIX SOLAR: Concentrix Solar GmbH was launched in February
2005 as a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). Concentrix Solar produces concentrator power plants for sunny locations, using Fresnel lenses to concentrate the sunlight by a factor of 500 and focus it on small high-efficiency solar cells. Concentrix Solar won the Innovation Award of German Industry 2007 in the 'Startup' category for successful implementation of its innovative technology. At present, Concentrix Solar operates a 25 MW production line for production of high efficiency CPV modules.
ABOUT EMCORE: EMCORE Corporation is a leading provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite and terrestrial solar power markets. R&D Magazine chose EMCORE's world record Inverted Metamorphic (IMM) solar cell technology for an R&D 100 award. This prestigious award recognizes the IMM solar cell as one of the most innovative technologies of 2008.
ABOUT ISFOC: ISFOC is an initiative from the Government of Spain and
Castilla La Mancha region, whose chief goal is the establishing of the main vehicle for the development of CPV technologies through partnering with the key R&D and industrial players and deploying pilot CPV power plants. ISFOC has become a national and world reference in CPV and with the infrastructure installed after the two-year establishment period; ambitious R&D projects are being be undertaken.
ABOUT ISOFOTON S.A.: ISOFOTON S.A. is a leading company in the PV field started in 1981 as a spin off from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
ISOFOTON has been involved in CPV technology from 2001 and has developed its own HCPV Technology based in non-imaging optics and small III-V solar cells.
Right now ISOFOTON is present in more than 40 countries with commercial branches in South America (Ecuador), North America (Washington DC), Italy, Morocco and Beijing. The company is devoted to the manufacturing and commercialization of PV products and Thermal Collectors, showing a strong commitment and leadership in Research and Development.
ABOUT SOLFOCUS: The SolFocus mission is to enable solar energy generation at a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources. To achieve this goal, SolFocus has developed leading concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology which combines high-efficiency solar cells (approaching 40%) and advanced optics to provide solar energy solutions which are scalable, dependable and capable of delivering on the promise of clean, low-cost, renewable energy.


For further information: Nancy Hartsoch, Director, CPV Consortium,
+1-408-209-9250 (mobile), +1-650-623-7134 (office) Web Site:
http://www.solarpowerconference.com
http://www.cpvconsortium.org

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