Solar
Startup Approved for State Loan
By TIM
FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff
MIDDLETOWN — The Rhode Island
Commerce Corporation recently
gave a local solar company and its innovative, flexible solar-panel technology
a shot in the arm with a $300,000 no-interest loan.
PV
Solutions claims its TFlex solar panels save money, installation time and can
be installed in more places than traditional metal rack photovoltaic (PV)
systems.
“Essentially,
what we have done is manage to figure out how to deploy PV panels on slopes,
cheaply and quickly,” company founder, Joe Tomlinson, said during a
presentation to the R.I. Commerce Corporation last month.
PV
Solutions was founded by members of renewable-energy developer rTerra in
March 2013. The offshoot company is the maker and installer of the innovative
panels. The company expects to hire up to 40 employees for sales,
administration and management. If certain sales goals are met, a manufacturing
partner promises to relocate to Middletown.
The
Commerce Corporation approved the no-interest loan, from its Renewable Energy
Fund, at its Jan. 27 meeting, pending a review of recent financial documents.
The loan is made through the Renewable Energy Fund’s early-stage
commercialization program, which helps bring promising technologies to
consumers. The loan is paid back after the company reaches consecutive months
of profitability, which it expects in 2015.
PV
Solutions is looking to sell its product beyond Rhode Island, however, to the
entire global market. Sites unsuitable for traditional PV racks are ideal
locations for the carpet-like TFlex panels, according to Tomlinson. Sloped
highway embankments, landfills, mining sites, brownfields, rooftops, reservoirs
and even airports, where metal racks interfere with airport radar, are suitable
locations, he said.
Savings
are realized through reduced installation time. The TFlex solar sheets take
minutes to install, as panels simply roll out and snap together. Less
excavating and preparation is needed, Tomlinson said.
Surface-level
installation also allows for greater energy generation, according to Tomlinson.
He claims the system generates 1 megawatt of power for every 2.5-3 acres of
solar coverage. Traditional arrays require 4.5-5 acres per megawatt.
The
company aims to reach 20 megawatts of new solar arrays by 2015.
“One
objective in doing this was to help to bring solar energy closer to parity with
the fossil-fuel industry,” Tomlinson said.
The
Renewable Energy Fund is funded through a charge on electric bills, as well as
fees paid by power companies to compensate for failing to meet renewable-energy
benchmarks.
