Silicon Valley building Solar Center for Excellence

Solar businesses in Silicon Valley have banded together to form a group that they hope will transform the region into a solar industry nexus.

SolarTech, a collaborative industry initiative created by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, today announced the establishment of the Solar Center for Excellence in Silicon Valley, a technical and educational resource focused on regional economic development and cost competitive solutions for the industry and its customers.

The group says it is examining ways of making Silicon Valley "the epicenter for solar energy, energy efficiency and clean energy technology."

"The Solar Center for Excellence will be a catalyst for the solar industry in Silicon Valley to thrive and take its place next to high tech, biotech and life sciences as core economic sectors," said Tom McCalmont, chairman of SolarTech and CEO of Campbell-based REgrid Power, a leading California solar integrator and charter member company of SolarTech.

"Many of the new technologies achieved by the solar industry originated, and are now flourishing, in Silicon Valley due to our culture of innovation together with abundant human and financial capital," said Justin Bradley, Energy Director of the Leadership Group, which represents 210 Silicon Valley employers.

SolarTech's charter members include REgrid Power, Horizon Energy Systems, Miasole, Silicon Valley Power, SunPower, NOVA Workforce Board, and PG&E, as well as Sharp Solar, SolFocus, SV Solar, Generating Assets, Tyco Electronics, and the Silicon Valley-based colleges.

Plans call for a physical home for the Solar Center for Excellence in the months ahead.

While home to many creative, ambitious solar companies, Silicon Valley is far from being the center of the solar industry today.

At last week's Cleantech 2007 conference in Santa Clara, investor Vinod Khosla was politely heckled in his keynote for asserting that the area was yet a dominant solar player.

Of the top 10 solar manufacturers by volume today, none are American, let alone based in California. SunPower, a leading Silicon Valley solar photovoltaic manufacturer, is currently number 12 by volume.

While it could ultimately become an important region, some investors recognize that appropriate talent and other conditions for success are still to be found outside of the area (see the Cleantech Group's Inside the Silicon Valley cleantech investor brain.)

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