Honors and Awards

Skyline Solar named to the 2011 GoingGreen Global 200 list

In September 2011, Skyline Solar was named to the 2011 AlwaysOn GoingGreen Global 200 list, in recognition of its technological innovation in the CPV market. Skyline Solar was selected from among thousands of domestic and international green technology companies. The winning companies were selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value and media buzz.

“Picking this year’s GoingGreen Global 200 was a very competitive process, as literally dozens of groundbreaking greentech companies are emerging out of the pack, raising big money and gaining significant market traction,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “This year’s winners clearly represent some of the highest-growth opportunities we’ve seen in the private company marketplace and underscore that many of the greentech sectors VCs have been betting on are booming.”

US Department of Defense (DoD)

In December, 2010, Skyline was awarded a $1.58 million dollar contract by the DoD for the deployment of systems at two domestic military bases. The object of the project is to demonstrate Skyline Solar’s performance in hot and sunny climates, and validate its field upgradability and rapid system deployment capability. The estimated combined output for the projects is 436 megawatt hours per year.

During a recent Energy Security Forum speech, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the need for the military to take a serious look at renewable energy from an energy security standpoint. “Failing to secure, develop and employ new sources of energy or improving how we use legacy-energy systems creates a strategic vulnerability and, if left unaddressed, could threaten national security.”

US Department of Energy (DOE)

In September, 2008, Skyline Solar was one of only six early-stage companies to receive a grant from the US Department of Energy. The competition for these grants was fierce, and Skyline was the only system-level company to be chosen. The other five companies were cell manufacturers.

"These projects will help promote the development of a diverse set of photovoltaic technologies and ensure that the U.S. is a world leader in next-generation, cost-effective solar technologies," Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy John Mizroch said. "These solar photovoltaic incubator awards will help accelerate the time it takes for innovative start-up companies to get their technologies to market."

The notice of award stated: "Skyline Solar (Mountain View, Calif.) has developed an integrated lightweight, single-axis tracked system that has been demonstrated to reflect and concentrate sunlight over 10X onto silicon cells. The use of mirrors to concentrate light will reduce the use of the greatest cost driver for traditional silicon modules, the solar cells, by over 90%. Additionally, the design leverages the mainstream PV industrial base and amplifies its capacity through significant concentration to enable rapid scaling. It seeks to dramatically lower the cost to manufacture modules and install complete systems to achieve a levelized cost of energy below grid parity. "

“We were impressed by Skyline's total system approach which packages many high gain solar design elements into an elegant array leveraging traditional manufacturing for large scale.”

Martha Symko-Davies
Research Senior Supervisor
National Renewable Energy Lab
U.S. DOE