Top Ten Solar

8. SolFocus

There is no shortage of companies aiming to successfully commercialize concentrating photovoltaic technologies – the use of mirrors and lenses to concentrate the sunlight onto solar cells to generate electricity. SolFocus is one of the few that is making a steady progress toward that goal.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup last year erected two projects with a total production capacity of 500-kilowatts in Spain to show that its technology could be deployed in the field (see SolFocus Completes Spanish Project, Eyes California). SolFocus installed a 7.2-kilowatt system for a San Francisco-based radio station last fall. Last November, it unveiled a second-generation system that could convert 25 percent instead of 18 percent of the sunlight that hits the cells into electricity, the company said (see SolFocus Boosts Solar Efficiency). The company has announced a $103 million deal to build 10 megawatts worth of solar projects in Spain for EMPE Solar by the end of 2010. It also is teaming up with the Samaras Group to build 10 megawatts worth of power projects in Greece starting this year.

SolFocus has big plans to commercialize its technology this year and next. The company hopes to install 10 megawatts to 15 megawatts of its systems by the end of this year and then install another 85 megawatts in 2010. It aims to impress power producers at a time when falling prices for silicon-based solar panels and the promise of solar-thermal technologies could make the company's proposition less attractive. It is competing against competitors who also have shown results, including Concentrix Solar in Germany and Sol3g in Spain.