Since the economy sucks, our resolution for the New Year is to make 2009 a year to make new friends and have fun. Our goal is to get to 1000 SopoFriends on Facebook in 2009!
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Posted by zjafar on March 31st, 2009Sopogy Receives Plant Engineering Gold Product of the Year
Posted by zjafar on March 31st, 2009
Charleston, SC— Sopogy, Inc. MicroCSP™ Solar Collector “SopoNova 4.0™” won Gold in the Plant Engineering Product of the Year 2008 in the category of Electrical Power. The Plant Engineering Product of the Year Awards honor the most innovative and useful products introduced to the industrial plant engineering market each year. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards in each category were presented at the Plant Engineering Manufacturing Summit Gala on Monday March 30, 2009 in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Product of the Year 2008 Gold Award marks continuing recognition for SopoNova 4.0™’s excellence in the industry. SopoNova 4.0™ combines the reliable performance of conventional concentrating parabolic trough technologies with several novel and revolutionary features that include the world’s first 270 degree MicroCSP tracker, integrated stands, automatic operation, and custom controls. The modular, versatile, and scalable solar collector uses mirrors and lenses to concentrate the sun’s rays and generate solar electricity, process heating, and solar cooling. The technology captures cost efficiencies by operating in lower temperatures which enable general contractor installation and low cost thermal energy storage.
“We are delighted and honored to receive Gold Award for Product of the Year 2008,” said Sopogy CEO and President, Darren Kimura. “This award not only encompasses prestige, but is a symbol of quality and innovation in the industry. We would like to thank the editors and staff at Plant Engineering, as well as all the readers who voted for SopoNova 4.0™.”
The Plant Engineering Product of the Year Awards are the premier honor for new products and among the most sought-after distinctions by manufacturers when establishing new products in the plant engineering industry. One hundred and fifty finalists in sixteen categories were selected by a panel of judges consisting of plant engineers for publication in Plant Engineering Magazine. Subscribers and readers then voted on their choices for the best products using an online ballot.
About Sopogy
Sopogy specializes in MicroCSP solar technologies that bring the economics of large solar energy systems to the industrial, commercial and utility sectors in a smaller, robust and more cost effective package. Sopogy’s goals include to create solar solutions that improve the quality of life for all human kind and to bring order and simplicity to the chaos which is the current solar power business. Please visit www.sopogy.com for more information.
Renewable Energy World’s Interview with Sopogy’s Darren Kimura
Posted by zjafar on March 12th, 2009Spain plant expands Sopogy’s global strategy
Posted by zjafar on January 5th, 2009Pacific Business News (Honolulu) – by Nanea Kalaniмебели Pacific Business News
Building a multimillion-dollar solar farm in Europe over the next two years is part of Honolulu-based Sopogy’s strategy to get its solar technology deployed around the world.
The company announced last week that it will build a 50-megawatt system in Toledo, Spain, using its proprietary technology in partnership with a German energy financier and a Spanish project developer. The system could generate enough electricity to power 15,000 homes.
Sopogy founder and CEO Darren Kimura said the Spanish project, expected to be completed by the end of 2010 and cost about $300 million, is part of the company’s plans to expand its presence abroad as the U.S. financial market wanes.
“For about a year now, Sopogy has felt that it’s necessary to diversify and become more global,” Kimura told PBN. “Because our technology offers higher production and lower capital costs, we’re looking for sites where our technology has the best value, and the best value today lies in the European market.”
Scoops: Who’s moving, buying, opening, changing, winning
Posted by zjafar on January 5th, 2009Pacific Business News (Honolulu) – by PBN Staff
Renewable energy energizes retired HECO executive
T. Michael May, who retired Aug. 1 as CEO of Hawaiian Electric Co., has teamed up with local entrepreneurs to find renewable energy sources for Hawaii.
May, 62, has equity ownership and is a board member of Sopogy, which specializes in solar power collectors. He also has equity ownership in Natural Power Concepts, an alternative energy technology incubator. And, he is involved in at least two other soon-to-be-named tech firms run by entrepreneurs in their 30s.
“It’s invigorating to be with people who have a passion for what they are doing and using their experiences and skills to quickly launch new dreams in products,” May said, adding that most of his time this year will be spent capitalizing on new ventures, and taking the ideas to market.
His wife, Carol Ai May, vice president of City Mill, thought he would take it easy during retirement.
Sopogy’s Al Yuen Speaks at San José’s CleanTech Legislative Summit
Posted by zjafar on December 16th, 2008San José’s CleanTech Legislative Summit, hosted by Mayor Chuck Reed and Carl Guardino, President and CEO Silicon Valley Leadership Group brought together experts from the Clean Tech sector and representatives from the local, state, and federal government to talk about how to maintain growth and expansion within the industry.
Al Yuen PhD, Director of Corporate Development at Sopogy served as a Panelist.
Sopogy Soaks Up More VC Financing
Posted by zjafar on December 11th, 2008
11 December 2008, 15:08
by Justin Moresco
Sopogy, the Honolulu company makes a “micro” version of concentrated solar power systems, which traditionally have been used on larger, utility-scale projects. Sopogy’s proprietary technology uses large metal troughs with mirrors that reflect sunlight onto a tube filled with fluid.
That solar energy is transferred to the fluid, an oil, and used to drive electrical turbines, adsorption air conditioning and steam creation. Sopogy’s software helps these troughs, or collectors, to rotate up to 270 degrees to follow the sun’s path.
The solar startup is trying to set itself apart from others by packaging this emerging solar technology in a smaller scale. The company sees a market niche for commercial and industrial customers, such as hospitals and hotels, that need between 1 and 20 megawatts of power and factories that need that power plus heat.
Initially focused on Hawaii and later California, Sopogy has turned its sights toward opportunities in Europe and Asia. The new financing, added to the $60 million in debt and equity already raised, will help the startup hire more staff and put more emphasis on those markets, where incentives like feed-in tariffs are especially attractive, Mr. Kimura said.
Hawaiian Electric, the island state’s largest utility, has ordered a 10 MW facility using Sopogy’s technology. Other projects, like one for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, are in the 1 MW range.
Each Sopogy collector generates 500 watts and can be strung together for larger generation. Mr. Kimura said they have been designed to be installed by local contractors without specialty training and can be transported flat, which keeps costs lower.
But cost is still an issue. Mr. Kimura said his systems can produce electricity over their lifetime at about 17 cents per kilowatt-hour. While this is cheaper power than that from solar photovoltaic systems, which run higher than 25 cents/kwh, it’s still more expensive than conventional electricity generated from fossil fuel sources.
Still, companies have reason to look to clean energy systems. Their costs, free from fossil fuel volatility, are more predictable over the long run, and with the right government incentives are competitive with the electric grid.
The large scale concentrated solar power companies, such as Israel’s Solel and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ausra, so far appear focused on massive projects. That’s good news for Sopogy. But Geortina Venezetti, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan, said waste-to-energy technology is still the most popular renewable energy source for commercial and industrial markets, and its costs are coming down.
Agricultural outfits, breweries, and paper and pulp factories, for example, can use their own waste as feedstock to run co-generation systems that produce electricity and heat. And unlike solar power, these systems run around the clock and on cloudy days.
Sopogy Holiday Green Giving Options
Posted by zjafar on December 9th, 2008
Sopogy Attends Platts Global Energy Awards in New York
Posted by zjafar on December 5th, 2008Sopogy Named Finalist for “Sustainable Technology Innovation of the Year”
Mele Kalikimaka Sopogy
Posted by zjafar on December 5th, 2008Merry Christmas from Hawaiian Airlines Carolers
