French cleantech developer Soitec and US electronic component supplier Reflexite Energy Solutions have entered into a joint venture to produce silicone-on-glass lens plates used in Soitec's concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules.
The companies will manufacture under the name Reflexite Soitec Optical Technology and will operate out of a new CPV manufacturing facility owned by Soitec in San Diego, California. The companies will also work to develop new technologies with a view to bringing down the cost and increasing the efficiency of CPV.
Reflexite will provide technology and manufacturing expertise with Soitec bringing lens design expertise, business opportunities in the South West US and the technical infrastructure of the factory. The companies are currently working on the design of the production area to be used by the joint venture, which will employ around 100 people.
Andre Jacques Auberton-Herve, president, CEO and chairman of Soitec, said, 'This joint venture is unique in the CPV industry and represents a very important step in our commitment to the San Diego region and the US market. It is both a technological collaboration and an innovative economic solution in the highly competitive renewable-energy market. By working together under the same roof, we can ensure the continuous supply of superior-quality lens plates at the most competitive cost, and our future product development programmes will be much more efficient by working in such close proximity.'
Michael Foley, CEO of Reflexite, added, 'Reflexite has always strived to provide the best total solution for our customers. We have partnered with Soitec for many years to develop a durable, field-tested system that has been deployed successfully around the world, and we will bring all this experience to bear as we build up our common California base of operations together. We are very happy to see Soitec re-confirming their choice of Reflexite's [silicone-on-glass] technology as a critical component of their high efficiency system, and we are sure that by co-locating our optics facility with their CPV module assembly facility we will have the best possible logistics and even closer collaboration in the future. We want to make sure we do our part to support Soitec's efforts to serve the US utility scale solar market.'
Earlier this month, Soitec received approval for five power purchase agreements with California-based utility San Diego Gas and Electric.