When semiconductor heavyweights Micron Technology and Aussie power generators Origin Energy said they were forming a 50:50 joint venture named Transform Solar in January, the synergy seemed promising. It wasn’t hard to imagine Micron, masters of silicon-based manufacturing, taking Origin’s thin-silicon "Sliver" cell technology and ramping it into full production mode all the way through moduling, with some nice process enhancement tricks along the way. Plus, the Boise, ID-based microchip mavens could now find something to occupy some of those older fabrication facilities sitting idle.
Yet since the initial ne
ws broke nearly six months ago—an announcement itself quite skint on the details of the partnership or its plans--nothing more has been said by the new corporate coupling. Thanks to Dave Bieter, the mayor of Boise, and the local media reporting on him, the nascent solar PV company has made it back into the public eye.
In Bieter’s annual state of the city address, he said that Boise had entered into lease negotiations with Sunergy World to build a $45 million, 10MW solar power plant on city-owned property (the location of the former city dump actually) west of the airport. He went on to say that the project will use modules from Transform Solar to be installed on ground-mount arrays from Sun Storage, with the juice to be sold locally under a power purchase agreement.
The deal also calls for PV parking structures to be constructed in one of the airport’s parking lots, with panels to be added to new awnings. Hizzoner also said that the project would likely “retain” 20 manufacturing jobs and create another 20 jobs on the construction side. If the deal is signed off promptly, project construction at the old dump should start by year's end and take about a year to complete.
The previously unfamiliar Sunergy World, which apparently has no relation to China Sunergy (but provides a case for the branding police), describes itself on its Website as “a renewable solutions company providing project planning and consulting in the following areas: feasibility, environmental impact analysis, PPAs, product specification and availability, and lease agreements.”
The site also says services include “site assessments; energy feasibility and production analyses; financial analyses; systems layout, design, and engineering; utility interconnection analyses and agreements; federal and state incentive review; installation; and operation and maintenance.”
Yet since the initial ne
ws broke nearly six months ago—an announcement itself quite skint on the details of the partnership or its plans--nothing more has been said by the new corporate coupling. Thanks to Dave Bieter, the mayor of Boise, and the local media reporting on him, the nascent solar PV company has made it back into the public eye.In Bieter’s annual state of the city address, he said that Boise had entered into lease negotiations with Sunergy World to build a $45 million, 10MW solar power plant on city-owned property (the location of the former city dump actually) west of the airport. He went on to say that the project will use modules from Transform Solar to be installed on ground-mount arrays from Sun Storage, with the juice to be sold locally under a power purchase agreement.
The deal also calls for PV parking structures to be constructed in one of the airport’s parking lots, with panels to be added to new awnings. Hizzoner also said that the project would likely “retain” 20 manufacturing jobs and create another 20 jobs on the construction side. If the deal is signed off promptly, project construction at the old dump should start by year's end and take about a year to complete.
The previously unfamiliar Sunergy World, which apparently has no relation to China Sunergy (but provides a case for the branding police), describes itself on its Website as “a renewable solutions company providing project planning and consulting in the following areas: feasibility, environmental impact analysis, PPAs, product specification and availability, and lease agreements.”
The site also says services include “site assessments; energy feasibility and production analyses; financial analyses; systems layout, design, and engineering; utility interconnection analyses and agreements; federal and state incentive review; installation; and operation and maintenance.”
As for Transform, although it might not be much, the mayor’s announcement is the first sighting of the toddler’s name in the mediasphere since its birth. Always interesting when a PV project is announced and the modules named come from an outfit that has yet to admit it's making anything (as opposed to the recurring theme of fledgling PV companies, which make starry-eyed claims that they will soon be producing a plethora of panels, but end up with bupkus because of bogus bankability, or worse).
A chance conversation about a month ago alerted me to the company's possible pending awakening from stealth slumber, with the source telling me that things were getting busy at the company’s sites in the Boise area.
When I tried to get more info, any info, a couple of weeks ago from Micron’s communications man, Dan Francisco, he told me that Transform had nothing to say at this time—not even a hint as to when they might have something to say: “They’re not commenting to anyone at this juncture,” was what he emailed me. (I have pinged him again since the mayor let that small cat out of the bag, although I haven’t heard a reply yet.)
So far, the corporate Website—www.transformsolar.com—pops up an “authentication required” box or page when you try to access it, even though it is the self-same URL listed on the company’s exhibitor listing for next week’s Intersolar Europe.
That listing that also refers back to the Australian entity, Transform Solar Pty Ltd., makes no mention of anything Micron-ic except a vague allusion to the use of “advanced semiconductor manufacturing techniques to create bold new possibilities for monocrystalline silicon solar power,” as well as other details about the “ultrathin, elongated cells that are purely bifacial, and highly flexible” that can also be found on Origin’s site.
Will Transform Solar choose Intersolar Europe to emerge from its current “no comment”-ridden stealth mode and, yes, transform itself into a more open, transparent player on the solar PV pitch, or will it wait a bit longer? Either way, the market clock is ticking, and expectations have been piqued for the company with the ambitious-pretentious name.
When I tried to get more info, any info, a couple of weeks ago from Micron’s communications man, Dan Francisco, he told me that Transform had nothing to say at this time—not even a hint as to when they might have something to say: “They’re not commenting to anyone at this juncture,” was what he emailed me. (I have pinged him again since the mayor let that small cat out of the bag, although I haven’t heard a reply yet.)
So far, the corporate Website—www.transformsolar.com—pops up an “authentication required” box or page when you try to access it, even though it is the self-same URL listed on the company’s exhibitor listing for next week’s Intersolar Europe.
That listing that also refers back to the Australian entity, Transform Solar Pty Ltd., makes no mention of anything Micron-ic except a vague allusion to the use of “advanced semiconductor manufacturing techniques to create bold new possibilities for monocrystalline silicon solar power,” as well as other details about the “ultrathin, elongated cells that are purely bifacial, and highly flexible” that can also be found on Origin’s site.
Will Transform Solar choose Intersolar Europe to emerge from its current “no comment”-ridden stealth mode and, yes, transform itself into a more open, transparent player on the solar PV pitch, or will it wait a bit longer? Either way, the market clock is ticking, and expectations have been piqued for the company with the ambitious-pretentious name.
No comments:
Post a Comment