Six public and private sector entities – Abengoa Solar; the city of Aurora, Colo.; the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory; Midwest Research Institute (MRI); SunEdison; and Xcel Energy – have partnered to develop one of the world's largest solar test and evaluation facilities: the Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC).
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 plans to recruit about a dozen other companies to participate as founding members in SolarTAC, which 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, Colo.
SOURCE: SolarTAC
