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SDForum Presents “The Water Crisis: An Update on the Challenges in Water Efficiency and Treatment” on August 5 (Discount Available)

SDForumOn August 5, SDForum will present the next program in its Green and Clean Evening Series entitled The Water Crisis: An Update on the Challenges in Water Efficiency and Treatment.  This program will feature the following panelists:

  • Anup Jacob, Virgin Green Fund
  • Bill Kocher, City of Santa Cruz
  • Bruce Keiser, Cohesive Ventures
  • Tamin Pechet, Banyan Water LLP
  • Mitch Zuklie, Orrick (moderator)

This program will be held from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm at Orrick, 1000 Marsh Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.  Thanks to our friends at SDForum, readers of Green VC can receive a $5 discount from the non-member registration price for this event.  To receive the discount, please use code "GREEN05" when registering online.  For more information:

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Solyndra Emerges from Stealth Mode, Announces $1.2 Billion in Contracts

Solyndra

Solyndra, a company based in Fremont, California that designs and manufactures photovoltaic (PV) systems for the commercial rooftop market, emerged from stealth mode earlier this week and announced that it has $1.2 billion of multi-year contracts with customers in Europe and the United States.  Solyndra claims that its CIGS-based thin film PV systems provide significantly lower installation costs and significantly higher annual solar electricity output per rooftop as compared to conventional solar panel installations for large, low-slope commercial rooftops.

"By eliminating the need for roof-penetrating mounts and wind ballasts, PV arrays with Solyndra panels can be installed with one-third the labor, in one-third of the time, at one-half the cost," said Manfred Bachler, Chief Technical Officer at Phoenix Solar AG, one of the largest solar power integrators in Europe and a Solyndra customer. "For commercial rooftops, PV module installation time can now be measured in days, not weeks. For flat commercial rooftops this is game-changing technology."

Solyndra founder and CEO Chris Gronet said "Solyndra’s system uniquely optimizes PV performance on commercial rooftops by converting more of the sunlight that strikes the total rooftop area into electricity while also providing for a lower installation cost and lower cost of electricity."

The following video provides an illustration of the manufacturing and installation of Solyndra’s product.

According to various media reports, Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet has stated that the company has raised $600 million in equity financing. Solyndra’s investors include Argonaut Private Equity, Artis Capital Management, CMEA Ventures, Madrone Capital Partners, Masdar Clean Tech Fund, Redpoint Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, and the Virgin Green Fund. 

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