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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Sunflower is First Solar Concentrator Safe for Rooftops


Businesses will now be able to get more solar power from rooftop systems with a Sunflower rooftop solar PV concentrator system from Energy Innovations. It is the very first concentrator system to get Underwriters Laboratories certification and is deemed safe for roofs. With the certification comes qualification for much sought after solar rebates, and the company is looking to raise $20 million so they can produce and install more systems in 2009.

By concentrating sunlight more than 1,000 times, the system makes electricity cheaper than traditional PV systems. It is self-powered and doesn’t need to penetrate the roof for installation.

Firsts like this are a pretty big deal because they show the unflagging growth of solar concentration efficiency and how the technology is catching up to coal in cheapness. Underwriters Laboratories recognizes this with the opening of their PV testing lab in San Jose, the largest in North America. The plan for the lab is to open up the bottleneck in testing and certifications for solar products.

The big step forward for Energy Innovations with their certification is hopefully the first of many to come through soon.

Original here

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