May 25 2010
Abound Solar, a leading manufacturer of cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar modules today announced the Abound Alliance, a unique ecosystem of balance-of-system partners that are collaborating with Abound Solar to drive down the levelized cost of PV electricity.
The marketing partnership will allow each company to better coordinate their product development, marketing and sales efforts, while optimizing their products to improve performance, reduce costs, and/or increase system reliability. The Abound Alliance membership includes:
- KACO: A powerful partner for PV system solutions, KACO new energy has built a tradition of excellence in the photovoltaic inverter and power electronics industries. KACO engineers have developed, designed and manufactured current inverters and power electronics for more than 60 years. With over 2 GW of PV inverters in operation worldwide KACO is a strong and reliable photovoltaic inverter partner.
- Northern States Metals (maker of Solar Flex Rack): Solar FlexRack is substantially reducing installation costs of commercial solar array projects all over the U.S. and Canada with its patent-pending ground-mount and roof-mount systems.
- PV Powered: PV Powered is the innovation leader for grid-tied PV inverters in the residential, commercial and utility markets, setting the industry standard for innovation in reliability and efficiency. Founded in Bend, Oregon in 2003 and recently acquired by Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS), the company’s vision is to tackle three significant issues affecting the growth of solar world-wide: (1) dramatically improving the reliability of inverters, (2) lowering the cost of levelized cost of ownership for PV power generation and (3) making distributed PV a scalable and controllable resource on the utility grid.
- REFU Solar Electronics: Since 1965 the German-based REFU Elektronik has been a specialist in custom power engineering applications and inverters. REFU Solar Electronics offers solar inverters from 4 kW to 1.3 MW with industry-leading conversion efficiency of up to 98.2 % and proven reliability. REFU’s North American office is in San Jose, Calif.
- Schletter: With over 40-years manufacturing experience, Schletter, Inc., has risen to be the technology driver of the solar mounting systems industry. Schletter, Inc. offers the solar industry’s most extensive, highly engineered and custom designed solar module mounting solutions for roof and ground mounted systems, supporting modules from nearly every photovoltaic manufacturer. Ground mounted systems are up to 70% pre-assembled in the factory, which reduces cost and decreases the installation time in the field.
- Sunlink: SunLink Corporation provides scalable solar module mounting solutions that reduce costs and installation times and improve system performance. Leading integrators have chosen SunLink’s commercial rooftop and ground-mounted systems on more than 90 MW of projects at 500 sites across North America. Most recently, SunLink was chosen for a 50 MW supply agreement with Southern California Edison. SunLink's experienced engineering team provides comprehensive support for each installation.
With the Abound Alliance, engineering, procurement and construction companies, utilities and project developers have a straightforward path for vendor selection as they design their large-scale systems. Customers can choose the appropriate best-in-class solution for their specific needs.
"Abound Solar understands the complexities facing solar project developers and engineering firms,” said Julian Hawkins, Abound Solar Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We have assembled the Abound Alliance to assist our mutual customers in simplifying the design, qualification, and procurement process."
Source: http://www.abound.com/