SolarTAC created to advance solar energy research and technology in Colorado

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October 10, 8:31 PM

by Ed Duffy, Denver News Examiner

 

 

SolarTAC to Accelerate Solar Technology Development

    

    Public-Private Sector Entities to Accelerate Commercialization With
Nation's Largest Solar Test Site

    AURORA, Colo., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six public and private
sector entities, all with a keen interest in advancing and accelerating the
commercialization of solar technology, have joined forces and signed an
agreement to develop one of the world's largest solar test and evaluation
facilities. Leveraging the exceptional solar resources already in existence
in Colorado, the development site, Solar Technology Acceleration Center
(SolarTAC), will be located in Aurora, Colo.

    The entities involved in SolarTAC include: Abengoa Solar, the City of
Aurora, the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, Midwest Research
Institute (MRI), SunEdison and Xcel Energy.

    "We are pleased that conceptual discussions we initiated several years
ago have now become reality with the tremendous help of all our SolarTAC
partners," said Dick Kelly, chairman, president and CEO, Xcel Energy.
"SolarTAC will help bring advanced, more efficient and lower cost solar
technologies to market and advance our vision of a clean energy future for
our customers and local communities."

    SolarTAC will provide a solar facility where member companies can bring
their technologies for testing and demonstration, particularly solar
technologies at the early commercial or near-commercial stage of
development. SolarTAC will also help promote better interface between
technology developers and solar energy users by offering solar equipment
suppliers an opportunity to show potential customers new technologies
performing under actual field conditions. MRI will serve as the management
and operating contractor for SolarTAC.

    "Site design, engineering, and permitting for the new 74-acre SolarTAC
site in Aurora has begun," said James L. Spigarelli, president and CEO of
MRI. "As renewable energy continues to play an ever-increasing role in
solving the world's energy challenges, large-scale test facilities will
play a significant role in helping companies test the readiness of new
solar technologies for deployment in the marketplace. We are very pleased
that Abengoa Solar, SunEdison and Xcel Energy have signed on as founding
member companies of the first shared solar technology center of its kind in
North America."

    Spigarelli added, "Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer and his economic development
team are also to be commended for their diligent efforts in making this
land available for our new not-for-profit business concept in solar test
facilities."

    "SolarTAC will be the best site in the country for the proving of new
technology. This campus is targeted at directly boosting the members'
bottom line," said Mayor Tauer. "We believe that other companies will also
see the advantages they can gain by working with the SolarTAC members on
this site."

    In addition to the three founding member companies, MRI, who is one of
two entities in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, that manages the
U. S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in
Golden, Colo., plans to recruit about a dozen other companies to
participate as founding members in SolarTAC.

    "Our objective is to provide a highly flexible, real world test
situation with dedicated, custom test sites for leading-edge companies,"
said Mike Pacheco, MRI vice president and acting executive director for
SolarTAC. "We look forward to building a base of companies that have
synergies with each other and will collaborate to test, validate, and
demonstrate new technologies and fully integrated commercial-ready systems
leading to deployment into the marketplace more efficiently and
effectively."

    The SolarTAC business concept allows members to sponsor a wide range of
research projects, from research that is completely proprietary to research
that is shared between members to research that is available to the public.
SolarTAC will also be open to research sponsored by the U.S. Department of
Energy and by national labs like the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
located in Golden.

    The members of SolarTAC have all agreed to partner with the State of
Colorado and the four major research institutions that make up the Colorado
Renewable Energy Collaboratory - Colorado State University, Colorado School
of Mines, University of Colorado - Boulder (CU), and NREL. As part of the
partnership, the Collaboratory institutions will be invited to participate
in planning SolarTAC activities and respond to Requests for Research
Proposals. Colorado's universities and NREL will be engaged to complement
the applied testing and demonstration work in Aurora with more fundamental
scientific research at each of the four institutions. "This is just one
more important step forward in positioning Colorado as a world leader in
renewable energy technology development," said David Hiller, executive
director of the Collaboratory.

    In the initial phase, SolarTac's 74-acre site, scheduled to be
developed over the next three years, will include common areas to be used
for performance validation testing of new solar energy system components
for which the costs and results will be shared by all SolarTAC companies,
as well as custom-made, company-specific test sites for proprietary testing
by member companies. Abengoa Solar will have one of the first buildings
erected on the site, an assembly building, and will begin actual equipment
testing on proprietary components for their Concentrated Solar Power system
components within a few months.

    SunEdison will begin developing a portion of the site for testing new
photovoltaic system components early next year, and Xcel Energy will be
permanently locating the Award Winning CU Solar Decathlon exhibit to the
site to serve as a visitors' center and solar exhibit. This zero-energy
structure was designed and constructed by students at CU-Boulder in 2007.
MRI will manage the engineering design and construction effort for the site
and its facilities and has hired Burns & McDonnell, an international
engineering and architecture firm based in Kansas City, to develop site
plans and designs, and ICM-Pueblo, a construction management firm in
Pueblo, Colo., to manage construction of the site.

    About Abengoa Solar

    Abengoa Solar (http://www.abengoasolar.com) develops and deploys technologies
to generate clean energy from the sun. Abengoa Solar develops, designs,
builds and operates in the U.S. Concentrating Solar Power (C.S.P.) and
photovoltaic power plants and installations. Abengoa Solar also develops
its own technology through R&D projects in collaboration with the U.S.
Department of Energy and NREL, among others.

    About Sun Edison

    SunEdison LLC is North America's largest solar energy services provider
and operates across a global marketplace. SunEdison provides
solar-generated energy at or below current retail utility rates to a broad
and diverse client base of commercial, municipal and utility customers. For
more information about SunEdison, please visit http://www.sunedison.com.

    About Xcel Energy

    Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas
company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states.
Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products
and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural
gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company
headquarters are located in Minneapolis. More information is available at
http://www.xcelenergy.com.

    About Midwest Research Institute

    MRI, a not-for-profit scientific research organization with 1,800
employees nationwide, performs contract research and laboratory consulting
services for clients in government, industry, and academia. Established in
1944, MRI is one of the nation's leading independent research institutes
conducting research in the areas of national security and defense, energy
and environment, life sciences, food and agriculture, and transportation
safety. With headquarters in Kansas City, MRI also has facilities in Palm
Bay, Fla., Frederick, Md., and Rockville, Md. MRI is one of the two
entities in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, that manages the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., for the U.S.
Department of Energy. For more information, visit http://www.mriresearch.org

    About Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory

    The Collaboratory is a renewable energy research partnership among the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Colorado's premier research
universities - Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University and the
University of Colorado - Boulder. The Collaboratory seeks to develop and
commercialize renewable energy technologies, promote economic growth in
Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Region and the nation with renewable energy
industries, and educate our nations' finest energy researchers, technicians
and work force. The Collaboratory's research centers provide access to four
world class institutions through a single point of contact. Nearly 50
companies, from Fortune 500 companies to clean energy startups, have
already joined Collaboratory centers. More information is available at
http://www.coloradocollaboratory.org.

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