Mountain View, Calif.-based SolFocus Inc., a developer and manufacturer of solar energy solutions, including concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, trackers and thermal technology, has announced the closing of $52 million in funding. The company will use half of this fund to launch SolFocus Europe, a subsidiary that will be headquartered in Madrid, Spain.
SolFocus Europe operations will include business development, marketing, engineering, research and development activities, and field operations. SolFocus will also continue its ongoing collaborative work with the Polytechnic University of Madrid and its Institute of Solar Energy.
SolFocus also recently acquired Inspira, S.L., a Madrid-based provider of solar trackers for the CPV and PV industries. According to SolFocus chief executive officer Gary D. Conley, the company will base its tracker and solar thermal product development activities in Europe, while focusing on panel, optics and cell technologies in the U.S.
‘This funding provides us the means to form and operate a separate, fully operational entity which can better serve the European market's demand for CPV systems, as well as trackers for CPV and conventional flat plate solar panels,’ says Conley. ‘SolFocus will also gain considerable solar DNA from the large and experienced solar labor pool in Europe.’
