Santa Clara, Calif.-based Act Solar Inc. has been awarded a $750,000 research grant from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. Act Solar, Santa Clara University and SolarTech - a Silicon Valley Leadership Group initiative focusing on tangible solutions to advance the solar industry - plan to deploy several photovoltaic (PV) arrays.
These new PV systems will use Act Solar's PowerString technologies to lower the costs of generating solar electricity, the company notes. "To date, most R&D grants have focused on lowering the up-front costs of materials, components and labor," says Andrew Foss, CEO of Act Solar. "While these efforts are critical, the most powerful contributors to lowering generation costs per kilowatt-hour lie in improving and assuring power output over the life of the array."
As the lead technology recipient of the PIER grant, Act Solar will deploy its patent-pending PowerString technology with active power management in several of SolarTech’s commercial demonstration sites.
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