Inc. Magazine names SPG Solar to the 2011 Inc. 500|5000 List

NEW YORK and NOVATO, CA—August 23, 2011— Inc. magazine today added SPG Solar to its fifth annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The comprehensive list represents the most important segment of America’s economy—independent entrepreneurs. SPG Solar joins online retailer ideeli, who tops this year’s list, along with Spirit Airlines, television maker Vizio, Honest Tea, Dunkin Donuts and Metrokane, makers of the Rabbit corkscrew, among other prominent brands.

In a stagnant economic environment, the median growth rate of this year’s Inc. 500|5000 companies remain at an impressive 94 percent. The listed companies have created 350,000 jobs in the past three years, with aggregate revenue of $366 billion, up 14 percent from last year.

“It is our customers, who recognize the importance of quality while developing solar power systems and the financial business case for solar that has fueled our growth for the past decade and helped us make this prestigious list,” said SPG Solar CEO and President Chris Robine.

SPG Solar, a leading national solar energy company, designs and builds solar power systems for Fortune 500 companies, utilities, schools and universities, agribusiness and the public sector. Additionally, the company has designed its own proprietary solar tracking technology for ground mounted arrays and another system that allows solar to float on water.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/5000.

Solar Startup Semprius to Create 250 Jobs in North Carolina at Cutting-Edge Pilot Plant

Energy Department-enabled innovation made Tuesday, July 19, a good day for North Carolina.

Entrepreneurs from Durham-based solar startup Semprius teamed with Governor Bev Purdue to announce the company’s plan to build a new high-tech manufacturing facility in Henderson. The factory is expected to create more than 250 full-time jobs over the next five years, which is a particular boon for Henderson, where the county unemployment rate reached 13.3% in May. This follows on the heels of news that Siemens recently participated with others in a $20 million investment in Semprius. Siemens took a 16% stake in the company – a vote of confidence from a global engineering giant with years of success in the solar industry.

None of this comes as a surprise to those of us who have followed Semprius’ progress as a pioneer in the design and fabrication of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules. The company’s story provides a case-study example for how federally-funded research and development sparks job-creation for Americans in a global growth industry.

Spun out of Lemelson-MIT award winner John Rogers’ research lab at the University of Illinois, Semprius employs a breakthrough semiconductor manufacturing technique called micro-transfer printing, originally invented with Energy Department Office of Science support. This core technology has a broad range of potential applications — from improving LED lighting to increasing computer hard drive capacity to making tiny sensors for next-generation medical devices. It enables Semprius to combine extremely small solar cells — about one half the surface area of a pin head — with low-cost, highly efficient lenses that concentrate the sun’s energy more than 1100 times.

Semprius first explored the idea of using micro-transfer printing for HCPV with the help of a 2007 “Next Gen” grant from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The company’s progress has been astounding since then; it earned Semprius one of four spots in the 2010 class of the PV Incubator Program along with recent record-breakers Alta Devices and Solar Junction and Tetrasun, which also closed a funding round recently. Like its peers, Semprius has benefited greatly from its participation in the Incubator. “Programs like the PV Incubator allow you to develop quicker, implement quicker and go to market quicker,” as Semprius CEO Joe Carr recently told me. Access to key tools and personnel at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has helped the company optimize both its tiny cell (NREL-confirmed 41.7% ) and its module.

This news adds Semprius to a growing list of PV Incubator participant companies that have attracted significant private investment and are plowing it into new manufacturing operations in communities like Henderson across the U.S. Between 2007 and 2010, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy invested $50 million in the Incubator for 20 solar startups like Semprius. Private investment in those firms now totals more than $1.3 billion, a 25-to-1 multiple.

These companies already employ more than 1,200 people in good hi-tech jobs, and that number is poised to grow rapidly as new manufacturing facilities come online. Six of those companies — 1366, Abound, Calisolar, PrimeStar (acquired by GE), Solopower, and now Semprius — have publicly announced plans to hire more than 3,800 full-time workers for new factories being built here in America.

The Department’s SunShot Initiative investments are not only making solar energy systems cost competitive with traditional sources of energy by the end of the decade; programs like the PV Incubator catalyze market support for leading companies like Semprius that are putting Americans to work.

If alternative energy sources excite you then you’re going to love DIY solar panels. We must now begin to seriously start taking advantage of alternative energy sources. We cannot continue to consume fossil fuels the way we have in the past.

It’s simply not sustainable on several levels. It may seem complex, but in reality making a solar power system isn’t hard at all. Furthermore, the tools and materials needed to get the job done can be purchased at your local hardware store.

For a couple hundred dollars you can buy everything you will need. There are some really great manuals can be purchased that instruct homeowners how to build a solar panel. One solar panel can generate up to 120 watts of electricity.

A solar array, which is several solar panels wired together, can generate enough electricity to power your entire home. Going off the grid is what this is known as. Going off the grid simply means that you no longer rely on the power company to supply you with your electricity.

The electricity that you do not use can actually be sold back to the power company. How awesome is that? Constructing DIY solar panels is a very straightforward process. Solar panels are made of solar cells that are strong, or wired together.

Photovoltaic refers to the solar cells converting light into electricity. Here, the source of light is, of course, the sun. Manufacturers charge tens of thousands of dollars for their solar power systems.

Getting the homeowner’s money back through savings can take a long time for high-priced systems. By building your own solar energy system you can do it for a fraction of that. These are high quality panels. The cost savings can be substantial as well. Getting your money back won’t take long at all.

As long as the system is maintained properly savings will continue. The federal government of the United States offers generous tax breaks and rebates to homeowners that use alternative energy. The technology is extremely user-friendly.

There are step-by-step guides that can be purchased online to show you how it’s done. There are both written instructions and a video series where you can see how it’s actually done. There are a great many advantages for utilizing DIY solar panels.

The sun is the source of an unlimited amount of energy that we can tap into. In addition, there is actually no pollution or carbon footprint involved with using it. I actually consider it to be a noble undertaking.

Generating solar power for home use is one way that concerned homeowners can reduce their carbon footprint – and save money. There is a constant supply of solar energy, renewed every day, and generating solar power for home use helps to reduce the environmental damage from fossil fuel use. Many people are interested in generating solar power at home, but are concerned that solar power solutions are expensive and awkward. In actual fact, generating solar power for home use is neither difficult nor expensive. In addition, you will reap the financial benefits as the solar power solutions cut down your power bills. And, of course, future generations will appreciate the cleaner, greener environment.

There are a number of ways to harness solar power for home use.

Solar Cooker

A solar cooker will cook food using only solar power, with no need for any other fuel. Using the suns’ energy, the average solar cooker can cook for up to five people. You might think that a solar cooker would limit the range of foods you can serve, but in actual fact, a wide variety is possible. There is more available than simply boining food – the solar cooker will also bake and roast! One possible limitation is the length of time it takes to cook food in a solar cooker – you do need to plan well ahead. However, because a solar cooker costs nothing to run, it is a viable option to rein in those ever-increasing energy bills.

Solar Home Lighting

Solar home lighting is a popular form of solar power for homes, using solar power to generate electricity, which then powers the lights in your home. Solar cells are use to generate solar power for home use; they become electrically charged after absorbing solar radiation. The power stored in the solar cells can then power the lights in the house at night. Once you have installed your solar home lighting system, you need never worry about electricity bills for your lighting.

Solar Heating System

Having your own solar heating system will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it will also reduce the drain on your wallet from those ever-increasing utility bills. Some people have worried that a solar heating system may turn their family home into a cluttered, techno-looking gadget house, or that it would be an expensive investment, but they have found that their concerns were misplaced. Companies providing solar power solutions for homes make it a point to install aesthetically-pleasing heating systems in your home.

When it comes to cost, a solar heating system is an investment, which pays for itself within 3-4 years, and after that you enjoy completely free power for life.

Home Solar Panels

Making your own solar panels is a great way to reduce the cost of coverting to solar power to a fraction of the cost of a commercial installation. The parts you need to make solar panels can be purchased at any hardware store, and assembling the panels is a relatively simple home handyman task.

Get the Alternative Energy Savers complete guide to solar power for home use.

Karl Bailey is a staff writer for AlternativeEnergySavers.com, and contributes regularly to other publications. This article is part of his series on solar homes.