Concentrated Photovoltaic Technology (CPV ) has received more than $300 million in venture capital funding since 2005, tens of millions from the Department of Energy (DOE), and tens of millions from public markets to fund development of this solar technology.  But to a great extent, CPV has been overshadowed by other solar sciences, notably concentrated solar power (CSP or solar thermal), amorphous silicon and wafered silicon (the current dominant technology).  In a $20 billion dollar global solar market – CPV is a zero billion-dollar market segment with only a few megawatts deployed, a negligible amount.   Ty Jagerson, VP of Corporate Development at SolFocus, one of the pioneering start-ups in CPV, spoke at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) yesterday and put his best spin on SolFocus' CPV technology.  This was somewhat of a homecoming for Mr. Jagerson, a former PARC employee, who helped license PARC technology to SolFocus.  PARC is legendary for its crack research team which invented laser printing, Ethernet and the modern personal computer GUI, amongst other brilliant technologies. It is also legendary for squandering the commercial potential of these technologies. SolFocus looks to be PARC's effort to make sure this history of lost opportunities doesn't repeat itself. SolFocus' high-concentration CPV scheme uses small quantities of high-efficiency triple junction solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity. The value in CPV is that "cheap" glass and metal replace expensive (?) and capacity-constrained (?) silicon. Additionally, the high-efficiency GaAs solar cells (>35% efficiency) result in a higher power density and a theoretical lower LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy).  SolFocus was started in its CEO Gary Conley's garage in 2001, and has morphed from a hydrogen fuel startup to the CPV aspirant it is today. The firm has made strong strategic moves in its relatively long (for a startup) history by acquiring a tracker firm, acquiring a glass works, forming smart partnerships and establishing manufacturing near where their product is to be deployed. Its first real commercial deployment is coming on line this year – a 500kW system in Spain. Ty revealed that SolFocus is in the process of raising another funding round and my VC sources indicate that the round will be about $75 million and probably not their last.   SolFocus is joined by a crowd of CPV start-ups and public firms. Here's a partial list: High Concentration PV

• Amonix
• Cool Earth Solar
• Emcore
• Concentrix
• Energy Innovations
• GreenVolts
• Soliant
• Sunrgi

Low Concentration PV

• Pythagoras Solar
• Solaria
• SV Solar

Semiconductors for CPV

• Azure
• Cyrium
• Quantasol
• Solar Junction
• Spectrolab

All of these firms have a slightly different spin on CPV, and CPV does have advantages over solar thermal and wafered silicon in particular applications. The big questions are: Can CPV catch up with CSP, silicon, and thin-film momentum? And, are risk-adverse big-project financiers willing to back CPV with the same gusto they've backed CSP and silicon? We'll see answers to these questions this year and next.