Cleantech and solar are hot
Cleantech-which loosely refers to renewable, sustainable, efficient, environmentally safe, "clean" technologies-is a rapidly growing industry. In fact, it now ranks 6th in size as an industry segment behind Software, Biotechnology, Telecommunications, Medical Devices and Equipment, and Semiconductors (Cleantech Venture Network).
The top three IPOs of 2005 were cleantech companies. In approving $3 billion rebates for solar electricity earlier this year, California passed one of the world's most aggressive cleantech incentive programs. Companies, consumers, and governments around the world are responding to environmental concerns and market demands by implementing or considering their cleantech options.
As part of its emerging cleantech initiative, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) recently announced
a new venture with SolFocus, Inc. to jointly develop low-cost solar energy systems that will cut solar
electricity costs by half. PARC is not only contributing core patents and long-term technology development
support for current and next-generation product lines, but is also incubating the award-winning company
for the duration of the research contract at its facility in Palo Alto, CA. "We think of PARC as our CTO,"
SolFocus President Steve Horne stated.
The secret sauce
So how did the Palo Alto Research Center-which introduced the Ethernet, laser printing, graphical user interface (GUI), first commercial mouse, and ubiquitous computing to the world-enter the cleantech sector?
Like many PARC projects, the cleantech initiative evolved as a grassroots effort by a small, dedicated group of scientists motivated to apply technologies towards positive environmental and social change. After hosting speakers and roundtable discussions with industry experts, the group carved out places where they thought PARC could make a difference. Multidisciplinary teams of PARC scientists are now harnessing their interests and competencies to address such cleantech challenges as affordable solar electricity, efficient energy distribution for the power grid, and safe air and water.
For over three decades, PARC has been conducting interdisciplinary research in the physical, computational, and social sciences with proven commercial and scientific value. Since broadening its commercial focus beyond just Xerox, PARC has been providing strategic research services, technology, and intellectual property to diverse industry and government partners.
But the secret sauce remains the same: broad, interdisciplinary perspectives + deep technical expertise + concrete market insights = industry-transforming innovations. Now, PARC's passionate scientists are marinating new sets of challenges-from broad initiatives such as cleantech, biomedical sciences, and others-to deliver fresh approaches and solutions.
The bottom line
Since one of the main obstacles to adopting clean technologies is cost, PARC's industry experience-from years of delivering innovations into Xerox product lines-ensures that scientists focus on delivering practical, cost-effective solutions. For example, the PARC-SolFocus solar technology combines a novel optical system design with practices borrowed from the high-volume semiconductor industry to optimize reliability and low-cost manufacturing. The resulting solar technology therefore operates at double the efficiency yet half the cost of many competing technologies.
Bottom line: the cleantech initiative allows PARC to directly participate in a new industry while developing environmentally beneficial and commercially valuable technologies. As PARC lab manager Scott Elrod stated, "Cleantech is an emerging business imperative for many industries. No one knows all the answers, but PARC is an ideal place for this kind of work-we're one of the few places in the world that can harness extremely broad interdisciplinary thinking to find effective solutions."
For More Information:
|
