After early-2009 product certification, privately held Solaria Corp. is finally ramping up its 25 MW April, 2009: Executives at Solaria Corp. avoid the term low-concentration when speaking about their newly certified series of PV panels. © Ronald Frommann / photon-pictures.com  Something to smile about: Solaria’s Marc van Gerven, Kevin Gibson and Suvi Sharma (from left to right) enjoy a laugh at a test site for Solaria’s recently certified modules in Fremont, California. Instead, they call it cell multiplication technology (CMT), which is exactly the same thing – but with a more successful ring. »I mean, who wants to be ›low‹ anything?,« insisted the company’s CEO, Suvi Sharma, during a recent tour of Solaria’s research facility in Fremont, California, and its outdoor module test site in nearby Livermore, where Solaria has been measuring the performance and reliability of its CMT modules for more than a year. Despite his dance around negative connotation, Sharma is undeniably obsessed with being »low« in one essential way. This, of course, is low cost – even if he prefers to spin it as Solaria’s »manufacturing cost advantage.« To be exact, Sharma expects a »15- to 20-percent cost advantage« at the module level in late-2009 compared to standard multicrystalline panels. »We are moving toward 30 percent,« he adds. Over the past year, Solaria had also become increasingly low profile, leaving some to wonder about its progress. But while Solaria silently worked toward certification at the start of 2009, it avoided the negative headlines that have plagued other Silicon Valley solar start-ups of late, such as Hayward-headquartered OptiSolar Inc., which laid off 300 employees earlier this year. Solaria, with about 100 employees, has suffered no layoffs amid the economic downturn. »None are planned for 2009,« says Sharma. In fact, Sharma will need to expand if the next year goes as planned. In mid-February, following a full year and a half of Solaria news scarcity, the company stepped out of its low profile with disclosure of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) product certification – so called IEC 61215 – from accredited IEC testing laboratories TÜV SÜD and the Photovoltaic Institute Berlin (PI Berlin) for its CMT-190 W, -200 W and -210 W panels. These have a sunlight conversion efficiency of 12 percent and a 25-year warranty. It was Solaria’s first official announcement since July 2007, when it reeled in $50 million in venture capital and the biggest cell supply agreement in the history of PV – 1.35 GW – with leading PV manufacturer Q-Cells SE, which owns about a third of the privately held company (see PI 7/2007, p. 76). Founded in 1999 and still a »pure early-stage technology development company« until recently, Sharma describes Solaria today as »a fully commercial company and participant in the solar industry.« In addition to IEC certification enabling access to European solar markets, Solaria expects to receive safety standard approvals from the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in three to four months that will open up the American market as well. With confidential supply agreements in place, Solaria plans to ship between 6 and 9 MW of modules in 2009 from its 25 MW manu­­facturing facility in the Philippines, which should be fully ramped in the fourth quarter. This indicates 2009 revenues of between $12 and $20 million – depending on actual shipments and pricing. Solaria will supply its first year of commercial output primarily to Europe-based installation partners, which Sharma declined to name because of non-disclosure agreements. »A few 1 MW plants most likely in Europe« are planned for this year, he says. Delayed, not disappeared »We were planning on being a bit further along,« concedes Solaria’s CEO, who two years ago aspired to »hundreds of megawatts« of production capacity in 2009. As it turns out, commercializing the company’s »cell multiplication technology« took longer than expected, which was in part due to the sophistication of Solaria’s unique approach. For example, the process the company uses to make two 6-inch Solaria cells from one standard 6-inch multicrystalline cell requires that the input cell be sliced into 74 separate 2 mm wide strips that are then encased in a cassette of plastic troughs that concentrate sunlight by a factor of two. That’s much more challenging than other low-concentration approaches – such as the 1 MW of modules installed as part of SunEdison’s 8.2 MW system in Colorado, which uses panels based on cells that are only cut in half. But Solaria’s delay was due not only to the need for further process and product refinement. It was also the certification process itself, says Stefan Krauter, co-founder of German PV system supplier Solon SE and PI Berlin, which counts Solaria as its first North American client. »It is a low-concentration technology, but in the form of flat plate,« Krauter told PHOTON International. »This is quite unusual, so it presented some challenges for the purpose of certification,« he said, adding, »But I can confirm that Solaria has now passed IEC 61215 for conventional thick-film PV.« For now, the »hundreds of megawatts« will have to wait for Sharma to raise enough capital to fund such an expansion. »I do plan on raising $50 million plus this year,« he says, giving a range of up to $90 million. Solaria’s goal is to expand capacity to 75 MW in the Philippines in 2010. Some of that is reserved for a new product family which the company plans to introduce in 2010 – modules with a 3× concentration ratio designed specifically for single-axis tracking. These will use multi- and higher-efficiency monocrystalline cells. Solaria hasn’t decided what to call the new product yet. But it certainly will not be »low concentration« – even if that’s what it is. Garrett Hering © PHOTON International, April 2009 Duplicate only with allowance of PHOTON Europe GmbH, Aachen, Germany  back