Soitec and Reflexite Energy Solutions Enter Joint Venture to Ensure Most Competitive CPV Solutions
BERNIN, France and AVON, Connecticut, November 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ –
Soitec (Euronext), a world leader in generating and manufacturing
revolutionary semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy
industries, and Reflexite Energy Solutions Inc., a U.S.-based global
supplier of microstructured optical components for the solar power,
lighting, instrumentation and display industries, have entered a joint
venture called Reflexite Soitec Optical Technology LLC. The new company will
produce the silicone-on-glass (SOG) Fresnel lens plates used in Soitec’s
concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules and co-develop next-generation
technologies that will continue to increase the efficiencies and lower the
costs of SOG lens plates. The joint venture will be located within the new
CPV manufacturing facility that Soitec is planning to open in San Diego,
Calif.
Reflexite is supplying the technology and manufacturing expertise to
produce injection-molded SOG lens plates at the “fab within a fab” to be
built inside Soitec’s San Diego facility. Soitec is providing lens design
expertise to achieve maximum performance across a wide range of operating
conditions in CPV modules, business opportunities in the Southwest U.S., and
the technical infrastructure of the factory. Soitec and Reflexite are
currently collaborating on the design of the area of the factory to be
dedicated to the Joint Venture, which will employ approximately 100 people.
“This joint venture is unique in the CPV industry and represents a very
important step in our commitment to the San Diego region and the U.S.
market. It is both a technological collaboration and an innovative economic
solution in the highly competitive renewable-energy market,” said Andre
Jacques Auberton-Herve, president, CEO and chairman of Soitec. “By working
together under the same roof, we can ensure the continuous supply of
superior-quality lens plates at the most competitive cost, and our future
product development programs will be much more efficient by working in such
close proximity.”
“Reflexite has always strived to provide the best total solution for our
customers. We have partnered with Soitec for many years to develop a
durable, field-tested system that has been deployed successfully around the
world, and we will bring all this experience to bear as we build up our
common California base of operations together,” said Michael Foley, CEO of
Reflexite. “We are very happy to see Soitec re-confirming their choice of
Reflexite’s SOG technology as a critical component of their high efficiency
system, and we are sure that by co-locating our optics facility with their
CPV module assembly facility we will have the best possible logistics and
even closer collaboration in the future. We want to make sure we do our part
to support Soitec’s efforts to serve the U.S. utility scale solar market.”
One of the important elements in CPV systems is the lens plate, which
incorporates a Soitec designed Fresnel lens that concentrates sunlight more
than 500 times to achieve CPV technology’s industry-leading efficiency.
Soitec was the first CPV company to use SOG to produce its lens plate design
which combines the excellent durability of a glass surface with high-volume
precision microreplication, the key to low-cost production.
Reflexite’s SOG lens plates are the most durable on the market and
provide excellent energy-generating efficiency, with no mechanical or
chemical degradation such as yellowing, cracking and delamination. The
combination of Soitec’s and Reflexite’s technologies provides the most
durable, reliable, efficient CPV systems, generating consistent electricity
output over the lifetime of a solar power plant.
Reflexite has been a long-time supplier of SOG lens plates to Soitec,
and its optics are key elements in the CPV systems that have already won
Soitec more than 300 MW in solar power plant projects throughout the
Southwest U.S.
About Reflexite
Reflexite is in the business of Saving Lives and Saving Energy. The
company’s Energy Solutions Business produces optical components and films
that reduce energy consumption, generate clean energy and improve the
operating efficiency of electro-optical systems. The company’s Reflective
Solutions Business produces optical films which make people and things more
visible and safer, day and night. Reflexite’s unique proprietary technology
embodies three elements: optical design
[http://www.reflexite.com/energy/us/en/optical-design ], microreplication
[http://www.reflexite.com/energy/us/en/micro-replication ] and polymer
processing [http://www.reflexite.com/energy/us/en/polymer-science ]. In
August 2011, Reflexite became a part of the Germany-based ORAFOL Group, one
of the world’s leading suppliers of global reflective materials, graphic
products and industrial tapes. For more information, visit:
http://www.reflexite.com.
About Soitec
Soitec [http://www.soitec.com ] is an international manufacturing
company, a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary
semiconductor materials at the frontier of the most exciting energy and
electronic challenges. Soitec’s products include substrates for
microelectronics (most notably SOI: Silicon-on-Insulator) and concentrator
photovoltaic systems (CPV). The company’s core technologies are Smart
Cut(TM), Smart Stacking(TM) and Concentrix(TM), as well as expertise in
epitaxy. Applications include consumer and mobile electronics,
microelectronics-driven IT, telecommunications, automotive electronics,
lighting products and large scale solar power plants. Soitec has
manufacturing plants and R&D centers in France, Singapore, Germany, and the
United States. For more information, visit: http://www.soitec.com.
International Media Contact
Camille Darnaud-Dufour
+33(0)6-79-49-51-43
(any time zone)
camille.darnaud-dufour@soitec.com
Investor Relations
Olivier Brice
+33(0)4-76-92-93-80
olivier.brice@soitec.com
French Media Contact
Marie-Caroline Saro
H&B Communication
+33-(0)1-58-18-32-44
mc.saro@hbcommunication.fr
SOURCE Soitec
