Practical Instruments Wins $4 Million in Funding From Department of Energy
3/9/07 – Pasadena-based Practical Instruments, the provider of high-performance concentrating rooftop solar panels, announced today that it has been awarded $4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Technology Pathway Partnerships (TPP) program.
Practical Instruments says it will use the federal funding to accelerate the evolution of its Heliotube product platform, a high-efficiency, low-cost concentrating solar panel that is optimized for the rooftop.
The award is a part of the DOE's $168 million Solar America Initiative (SAI), which aims to dramatically drive down the cost of solar energy technologies.
Led by CEO and former NASA chief architect Brad Hines, Practical Instruments says it has taken a practical market-driven approach to solar technology: combining the industry-accepted form factor of a solar panel with the high-performance benefits of concentrating solar technology. The result is an easy-to-install, low-cost solar system that is optimized for the rooftop, initially targeting the needs of commercial building owners.
To meet the SAI’s aggressive PV (photovoltaics) goals, the company says it has partnered with four industry leaders: Spectrolab, SunEdison, Sandia National Laboratories and MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering.
“By selecting Practical Instruments and its partners to deliver on its aggressive PV goal, the DOE has underscored the key role the Heliotube platform will play in solving solar’s cost equation. Our unique design both reduces cost and increases performance, delivering the highest power possible on a rooftop,” said Brad Hines, president and CEO of Practical Instruments. “We look forward to continued collaboration with our four proven industry partners, as together we build on the capabilities of Heliotube and bring the first in a series of concentrating solar panel products to market later this year.”
Practical Instruments - www.practical-instruments.com
