Sopogy thinks small to make megawatts of solar power

Posted by Martin LaMonica

If giant solar thermal power plants spread across the desert are like a mainframe, Sopogy is making the equivalent of a personal computer.

The Hawaii-based company on Tuesday at the Intersolar 2008 conference will show off the latest version of its MicroCSP–essentially a shrunk-down version of concentrating solar power (CSP) equipment used in power plants.

The SopaNova 4.0, a “micro concentrated solar power” trough, has been redesigned to be longer and use less material.

It’s a trough with a reflective coating that focuses sunlight onto a pipe that carries an oil. That heated liquid goes through an organic Rankine cycle engine to convert it into electricity.
The conventional thinking in solar these days is to think big. Proposals for concentrating solar power plants call for hundreds of rows of troughs or mirrors to make steam to drive an electricity turbine. The output of these proposed plants will be hundreds of megawatts, approaching the size of traditional power plants.
Sopogy’s product, called SopaNova 4.0, is aimed at utilities as well, but for smaller-scale projects, in the range of 250 kilowatts to 25 megawatts. The latest edition is longer–between 12 feet and 18 feet long–than previous editions because of a new manufacturing process.
“On cost per watt, we’re cheaper than PV (photovoltaics),” said CEO Darren Kimura. “But that’s not what really matters. We can do more production. We actually get more sun energy every day.”
With a higher output, the payback on an initial investment comes quicker, he argued. The troughs can be used by corporate customers as well for on-site power generation.
In terms of the efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity, the SopaNova is between 20 percent and 30 percent, he said. That’s lower than its larger CSP cousins, which operate at higher temperatures, but better than most solar photovoltaic cells.
Unlike flat solar photovoltaic panels, solar thermal systems have storage today. In practice, Sopogy’s trough systems can store a few hours worth of electricity, which can be used when electricity is more expensive or when there isn’t light.
Sopogy is thinking relatively small when it comes to its own capital needs.
The company raised $9 million in venture funding earlier this year and got a $35 million special-purpose bond from the state of Hawaii.
Later this year, Sopogy will look to raise another round of equity, which will be more than its past round but far less than the huge deals–some topping $100 million–announced by traditional CSP companies.
“We’re trying to demonstrate that you can do solar technology but still be capex (capital expenditure)-light,” Kimura said.
Ultimately, the company intends to go public. “The goal in solar is to become a really big company and the market space allows for that. If you don’t, you’ll get acquired,” Kimura said.
The company has about 20 customers now. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii recently broke ground on a project to install thousands of the troughs to ultimately make one megawatt of electricity.
The troughs can also be used to generate process heat, which can be used in a variety of applications, Kimura said.

SOPOGY PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 7/7/08
Contact: Zeina Jafar – Corporate Communications
zjafar@sopogy.com
808-237-2324

Subject: SOPOGY BREAKS GROUND ON WORLDS FIRST MICROCSP SOLAR FARM AT THE NATURAL ENERGY LABORATORY OF HAWAII.

Honolulu, HI – Keahole Solar Power, a Concentrated Solar Power solar farm, breaks ground Wednesday July 9, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. with an event hosted by Sopogy, Inc. on the Big Island at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.  The solar farm will be built in phases over several acres and is the first of its kind in the world to make large-scale use of Hawaii based Sopogy’s proprietary solar concentrating systems known as MicroCSP technologies.

MicroCSP systems use reflectors and optics that harness the energy from the sun to create heat that passes through a turbine to produce electricity.  The Sopogy MicroCSP solar collector system is a robust and elegant concentrating panel that was modeled after the very successful installation of concentrating panels in the Mojave Desert in the mid 1980’s.  These traditional panels at the Solar Energy Generating Station have been producing 354 megawatts energy for over 2 decades, enough power for the Big Island and Maui.  “MicroCSP technologies combine the efficiencies of traditional Concentrated Solar Power collectors but incorporate new key elements that are required for operation in Hawaii.  These elements include a stronger more durable frame that is able to withstand against storms and operating temperatures that enable Hawaii’s contractors to install and service the system,” said Darren T. Kimura the President and CEO of Sopogy.

“Our leading edge MicroCSP solar research began in Kona in 2002 with one concentrating system and it is appropriate that Kona is the home for the world’s first deployment of a MicroCSP solar field,” Kimura said.   “Our technologies create energy from the sun, a sustainable and renewable energy resource and will help Hawaii break its bonds to imported fossil fuel.”

“This is the first renewable energy project at the Natural Energy Laboratory in over 30 years” stated representatives from NELHA.

Selected dignitaries including former Governor George Ariyoshi, Sopogy, Inc. Chairman of the Board of Directors and Founder, Darren T. Kimura, Representative Jon Riki Karamatsu and others will be on hand to participate in the highly anticipated ground breaking ceremony.  Once the first Phase is completed, Keahole Solar Power will produce electricity for over 100 Hawaii homes.  In its entirety, the project can scale up to a 1 megawatt solar farm capable of powering 500 Hawaii homes and off setting over 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of removing 367 cars from Hawaii roads.

The blessing will be done by Sopogy’s Hawaiian Kahu and event will be powered by renewable solar energy and the greenhouse gas emissions from the travel, preparation, set-up and all festivities will be offset with green certificates.

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. Please visit www.sopogy.com for more information.

Hawaii has become an incubator for all sorts of renewable-energy projects

By JIM CARLTON
June 30, 2008; Page R12
HONOLULU — A state better known for sun and fun is quietly morphing into one of the world’s leading incubators of alternative energy.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is heading up a test venture in Hawaii to turn oil-rich algae into fuel. If the process is found commercially viable, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate could build algae-processing plants elsewhere.

Ever-Green Energy LLC of St. Paul, Minn., plans to build a plant in Honolulu that uses seawater to cool office buildings; if successful, the project will be expanded to other states. A start-up company, meanwhile, is deploying miniature solar-thermal collectors on Oahu to help generate more power for the local electricity grid. This set-up, too, if successful, will be reproduced elsewhere.

The reason for all the interest: location, location, location.

“Hawaii is the only place in the world where you have access to every form of renewable energy, and you are on the dollar and the U.S. legal system,” says Joelle Simonpietri, a former venture capitalist who now heads an algae-to-fuel firm called Kuehnle AgroSystems Inc.

Hawaii is trying to convert to clean energy as fast as it can. Petroleum imports make up about 80% of the energy supply for Hawaii’s main utility, leaving the state among those hardest hit by the run-up in oil prices. Electricity rates have gone through the roof. The average residential rate on Oahu, where most of Hawaii’s 1.2 million residents live, had doubled to 25.50 cents a kilowatt hour — the highest in the U.S. — from 12.74 cents in 1999, according to Hawaiian Electric Co., the state’s major utility.

So, in January, Gov. Linda Lingle announced plans under a state-federal partnership for Hawaii to derive 70% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 — one of the most ambitious targets in the world.

The state has gotten a head start toward this goal in some places. On Maui, for example, wind farms power 11,000 homes, or about 10% of that island’s energy, while on the Big Island, which is Hawaii itself, geothermal power from volcanic vents accounts for about a fifth of the energy there.

And on Oahu, Hawaiian Electric is building a new power plant that will generate 110 megawatts — enough power for about 30,000 homes — and will run completely on biodiesel fuel. The $160 million plant, expected to open next year, will initially get its fuel from imported palm oil.

“Everything is possible as oil prices rise,” says Henry Montgomery, chief executive of MontPac Outsourcing, a finance and accounting consultancy in Honolulu.

Not all the technologies are problem free. Environmentalists want to make sure, for example, that Hawaiian Electric doesn’t import any of its palm oil from endangered rainforests in Asia. Utility officials say that their palm oil will come from sustainable sources, and that over time the plant will rely more on crops grown in Hawaii.

There’s also a question of whether the sources of energy can overcome technical hurdles, among other challenges.

Gov. Lingle, for her part, says Hawaii is counting on a multitude of the clean-energy technologies to succeed — not any particular one. “If our experience with petroleum has taught us anything, it is not to get reliant on any one source of energy,” the governor said in a recent interview at her state capital office, where, moments earlier, the power went down due to a temporary malfunction.

Here is a sampling of what’s going on in Hawaii:

SOLAR

One of Hawaii’s most abundant resources is its sunshine. But like many places, solar power used to cost so much more than conventional power it largely wasn’t economical — until oil prices got so high.

Now, several solar companies in Hawaii are trying to cash in on the boom in clean-energy demand. Hoku Scientific Inc. until last year specialized in making fuel cells. Now the Honolulu company makes silicon for photovoltaic solar cells at a factory in Idaho, while in Hawaii it installs solar panels for mostly corporate customers including the Bank of Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric. “Obviously, with the high electric rates, Hawaii is a great place to sell alternative energy,” says Darryl Nakamoto, Hoku’s chief financial officer.

Another company, Sopogy Inc., is augmenting local power with solar-thermal energy, a technology that uses mirrors and lenses to concentrate the sun’s rays on fluids, creating steam that turns turbines to generate electricity. Spun off last year from a technology company called Energy Industries, Sopogy has created a miniature version of the giant solar collectors found in places like the California desert. “Micro” collectors weigh about 100 pounds, measure 12 feet by five feet, and can be deployed on building rooftops, Sopogy officials say. Also, unlike many technologies that tap the sun, Sopogy has designed its system so it can store solar energy, the company says.

Last year, Sopogy got $10 million in state revenue bonds to set up a one-megawatt demonstration farm on Hawaii. In May, the state Legislature approved $35 million in bonds to help Sopogy build a solar plant on Oahu that will generate 10 megawatts, or enough power for about 3,000 homes, for Hawaiian Electric. Privately held Sopogy has raised more than $10 million in other money as well, including from Kolohala Ventures, a Honolulu venture-capital firm.

If successful, Sopogy hopes to expand its micro solar plants around the world. “We want to see our revenues at $1 billion in five years,” says Darren Kimura, president and chief executive of Sopogy, and founder of Energy Industries.

ALGAE

One of the holy grails in alternative energy is a system that can extrude oil from algae on a grand, and economical, scale. Scientists say oil represents as much as half the body weight of algae, compared with about 20% for corn, one of the most widely used biofuel crops. Algae also grows as much as 10 times faster than corn, and can be processed for oil without disrupting food supplies.

RENEWABLE SOURCES A seawater cooling project for downtown Honolulu would be similar to an Enwave Energy project in Toronto (top left); Ormat Technologies’ geothermal plant in Puna (top right); Darren Kimura, president and CEO of Sopogy, a solar-thermal energy firm; and a diagram of a deep-water cooling system.
However, the technical challenges have proven large in the past. For example, studies have shown algae strains that can produce the most energy often need to be starved of nutrients, which stunts their growth. Indeed, some previous efforts in the U.S. and Japan over the past 30 years have been dropped, in part, because costs were exorbitant.

But now that oil is so high, several companies are turning to algae again. One of the more closely watched is Cellana, a Shell-led venture with a University of Hawaii spin-off, HR Biopetroleum. The companies announced in November 2007 that the venture would build a pilot facility on the Big Island’s Kona coast. Since then, researchers have been busy planting various strains of algae in test tubes that sit in the warm sea water on the Kona coast. One of the tasks facing them is to find algae that both contains the highest amounts of oil and can grow in warm water. “We’re in the process of whittling down the top super bugs from hundreds to 10,” says Susan Brown, a University of Hawaii researcher who collects specimens for the project on scuba dives around local waters.

SEAWATER

One of the simplest clean-energy concepts is to take cool water from the ocean or a lake and use it to help air-condition buildings in nearby cities. The technique has been used in places like Amsterdam and Toronto, with significant power savings.

But piping water to where it needs to go requires more capital investment than many places were willing to make when oil was cheaper. Until recent years, there were also limitations on how deep pipes could be put to suck up the colder water.

In 2003, David Rezachek — a former manager of Hawaii’s alternative energy program — held a workshop in Honolulu to revive local interest in seawater air-conditioning. Even then, Hawaii’s electric rates were the highest in the country. “I said, ‘It’s time to quit talking about it, let’s do this thing,’” Mr. Rezachek recalls.

He helped get Ever-Green Energy — then called Market Street Energy — to set up a subsidiary called Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning. The company invested about $3.5 million in the venture, while $10.8 million has been raised from mainland and Hawaiian investors, including Kolohala Ventures, says Mr. Rezachek, associate development director for Honolulu Seawater. The state Legislature has also authorized $100 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds for a seawater cooling project.

The venture proposed in late 2003 a seawater cooling project be built for downtown Honolulu. Although ocean temperatures on the beaches around Oahu hover in the mid 70s, they drop to 45 degrees at 1,600 feet deep a few miles offshore. So Honolulu Seawater proposed to run a pipe from 1,600 feet deep to a cooling plant onshore, four miles away. The cold seawater would pass through a heat exchanger where it would cool fresh water from separate pipes used to chill nearby office towers downtown.

Designed to cool 12.5 million square feet of office space — or the equivalent of almost five Empire State Buildings — the Honolulu system is projected to save as much as 15 megawatts of conventional power, while at the same time cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 84,000 tons a year. The venture expects to secure permitting by early next year, and be in operation in 2010 at a cost of about $165 million.

GEOTHERMAL

Few places in the world have as much geothermal energy potential as Hawaii’s Big Island, where the Kilauea volcano has been erupting since 1983. As long ago as 1881, Hawaiian King David Kalakaua met with inventor Thomas Edison to discuss harnessing the power of Hawaii’s volcanoes.

In the 1970s, a public-private partnership dug the first geothermal well in Puna on the windy east side of the island. Over time, enough hot water and steam was taken out of the ground to fuel a 30-megawatt power plant. The plant, owned by Reno, Nev.-based Ormat Technologies Inc., provides power to about 10,000 homes, or 18% of the Big Island’s total supply, according to Hawaiian Electric.

Conceivably, the Kilauea volcano could provide enough power to meet all of Hawaii’s needs, state utility officials say. But there are several limitations. One is the Big Island’s isolation from the other Hawaiian islands. For example, the ocean is so deep between it and the next closest island, Maui, that officials in the state abandoned a past plan to try and lay an underwater cable between the islands to transfer the geothermal energy.

Another issue: opposition to significant expansion of geothermal by some native Hawaiians, on grounds the volcano is sacred, says Robert Alm, a spokesman for Hawaiian Electric.

–Mr. Carlton is a staff reporter in the San Francisco bureau of The Wall Street Journal.

Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com

Date: 5/23/08
Subject: GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF HAWAII SIGNS LAW APPROVING SOPOGY, INC. $35,000,000 FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

Contact: Darren T. Kimura, CEO
Tel: (808) 833-4747
Email: dkimura@sopogy.com

Honolulu, HI – Governor of the State of Hawaii Linda Lingle today signed a bill into law that authorizes the issuance of $35,000,000 in special purpose revenue bonds to assist Sopogy, Inc. in the development of renewable energy on the Island of Oahu.

“Due to low energy cost and the high cost of construction, renewable energy has struggled to get traction on the island of O’ahu,” Said Darren T. Kimura President and CEO of Sopogy, Inc. “These special purpose revenue bonds are a critical enabler in bringing clean solar power energy to the residents.”

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. Please visit www.sopogy.com for more information.

Download file from Governors Office

Written by Katie Fehrenbacher

The small-scale solar thermal startup Sopogy that we reported was in the process of raising a $9 million round last October, has closed that round from investors including the investment vehicle of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Ohana Holdings. The folks at New Energy Finance reported the news, and after digging through regulatory filings, Nathaniel Bullard, senior analyst at New Energy Finance reported that the $9.1 million round also included local investors Bethel Tech Holdings, Energy Industries Holdings, Kolohala Holdings, Black River Asset Management a wholly owned subsidiary of Cargill and Tetris video game entrepreneur Henk Rogers.

Well, Google and former dotcom entrepreneur Bill Gross have been busy investing in solar thermal power plants, so why not eBay’s founder? (Perhaps we should add him to our list of 25 Who Ditched Infotech for Cleantech). And former eBay President Jeff Skoll has invested in thin-film solar startup Nanosolar. New Energy Finance notes that Omidyar’s Ohana Holdings has actively been investing in Hawaii as of late, and Bullard tells us that Ohana also previously invested in biodiesel company US BioDiesel Group.

Sopogy has strong roots in the state. Most of its investors are local, and in May Sopogy said the state legislature had approved up to $35 million in special purpose revenue bonds for Sopogy to build and operate a solar plant locally. As of October Sopogy CEO Darren Kimura told us the company is working on getting a 1-megawatt solar system up and running. Kimura also said that Hawaii’s “highest electricity rates in the U.S.” give its technologies “a competitive marketplace to develop and mature.”

The Honolulu-based five-year-old company Sopogy makes small scale solar thermal systems, which are condensed versions of the set-ups that use mirrors and lenses to heat liquid and turn that into power. Ausra, BrightSource, Solel and eSolar are just a few of the startups that have emerged to building large-scale systems on a lot of land and plan that power to utilities.

Sopogy, on the other hand, says its technology can be used where space is limited, even on rooftops, and delivers on a scale in the single megawatts. Each individual collector can produce 500 watts, and the collectors can be strung together for more wattage.

Kimura told VentureBeat last week that Sopogy has gotten enough interest that the company is eying an IPO in the not-too-distant future.

Renewable energy could get boost

The Legislature has approved up to $35 million in special purpose revenue bonds for local renewable energy technology firm Sopogy Inc.

The measure goes to the governor for final approval.

If approved, the bonds are expected to be used by Sopogy to develop a 10-megawatt solar farm plant on O’ahu. Honolulu-based Sopogy, which is headed by Darren Kimura, specializes in the development, manufacture and distribution of solar-powered systems.

Kimura applauded the Legislature and governor for taking the step to increase solar power production.

“Due to low energy cost and the high cost of construction, renewable energy has struggled to get traction on the island of O’ahu,” Kimura said. “These special purpose revenue bonds are a critical enabler in bringing clean solar power energy to the residents.”

The bill was introduced by Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu, D-41st (Waipahu, Village Park, Waikele) and Sen. Ron Menor, D-17th (Mililani, Waipi’o).

Date: 4/14/08
Subject: Sopogy names Tal Ziv Director of Energy Economics
Contact: Sher Komoda, Communications
Tel: (808) 833-4747
Email: skomoda@sopogy.com

Sopogy names Tal Ziv Director of Energy Economics

Honolulu, HI – Sopogy, Inc. manufacturer of MicroCSP™ solar technologies announced the appointment of Tal Ziv as Director of Energy Economics. Based in the company’s Honolulu, Hawaii office, Ziv will oversee the leads in the project finance, structuring, financial analysis, and forecasting for Sopogy. He will report directly to Chief Operating Officer John Rei.

Prior to joining Sopogy, Tal was the Manager of Corporate Development and Planning at Alexander & Baldwin (NASDAQ: ALEX). Previously, Tal served as Business Development Manager, Global Business Development for GE Energy (NYSE: GE) GE’s largest industrial business with $22 billion of revenues in 2007. As manager for the business development/mergers and acquisition activities at GE Energy, Tal’s responsibilities included originating, executing and integrating inorganic growth initiatives. During his tenure at GE Energy a couple of the high profile transactions include the multi-billion dollar global alliance between the nuclear energy businesses of GE Energy and Hitachi, Ltd. and the acquisition of specialized pumping equipment for the gasification technology acquired from ChevronTexaco. Additionally, Tal led several strategic divestitures including the sale of GE Energy Rentals to Aggreko plc. Tal began his career as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force and was a command briefer for the Pacific Air Forces Headquarters.

Tal earned an MBA from the Shilder College of Business at the University of Hawaii, and holds a M.S from Texas A&M University, and a BS in Cornell University.

About Sopogy
Sopogy manufactures the innovative MicroCSP™ solar concentrator technology. MicroCSP™ uses optics and mirrors to focus and intensify the energy of the sun for electricity production, solar air conditioning and process heating. The technology uses traditional economics from large solar energy deployments to the industrial, commercial and utility sectors in a smaller more cost effective and robust package. Please visit www.sopogy.com for more information.

As a recognized expert in energy efficiency and renewable energy, he has served as a speaker for the US Department of Energy, Hawaiian Electric Company, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and for numerous Country, State and County Energy Offices. He is a Co-Chairperson of the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum, serves on the Advisory committees for DBEDT’s Energy Management, Hawaiian Electric IRP’s, Member of the Governor’s Innovation Council, Director HSDC, and President of PLASMA, the nation’s largest energy association. Mr. Kimura has a BA from the University of Hawaii. He is a Certified Energy Manager, Certified Demand Side Manager, Certified Cogeneration Professional, and Certified Sustainable Development Professional.

Emerging Solor Technologies

With energy usage at record setting levels and global warming increasing, Solar Energy has emerged in innovation and investment. This session will discuss several different solar energy technologies and the future of the market.

Download Brochure Here

Friday, April 4, 2008

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) by Nanea Kalani

Hawaii could see a surge of new solar energy farms under a proposed measure that would open up thousands of acres of state agricultural-zoned land for such facilities.

House Bill 2502 would permit solar energy facilities on state agricultural land that is unsuited for either farming or livestock grazing. Wind farms and the growing of crops for biofuel already are allowed on such land.

The measure, introduced by state Rep. Hermina Morita, D-Kapaa-Hanalei, has gained strong support from solar energy firms and private land developers because it would reduce the number of land-use permits needed from county agencies for building and operating solar farms.

Industrial-size Facilities

Solar facilities can include large-scale photovoltaics, which directly convert sunlight into electricity, or solar collectors, which transfer heat energy to electric power and also can store the energy for use during nondaylight hours.

Unlike smaller residential systems, these types of projects typically sit on land ranging in size from one acre to thousands of acres. The generated power can be sold to a utility or used to power buildings and homes.

The bill, which passed through the Senate Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee last week, specifies lands with D or E soil productivity ratings. Approximately 70 percent of the state’s 1.3 million acres of farmlands — about 910,000 acres — have these soil classifications.

Honolulu solar technology firm Sopogy Inc. testified in support of the measure and sees potential for expanding its solar projects.

“This would open a new market for solar farming in Hawaii, where a lot of the abandoned sugar cane lands could be used for solar farms,” said Sopogy President Darren Kimura. “We would definitely be looking at these lands as we try to bring as much solar-generated power to Hawaii as possible.”

Sopogy has a 1-megawatt solar farm at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority on the Big Island, as well as a 50-kilowatt plant in Idaho. Both farms use Sopogy’s proprietary solar collectors, which concentrate the sun’s power to heat mineral oil, which is then run through a turbine to generate electricity.

On Oahu, the company plans to build a 50-acre, 10-megawatt solar farm that could generate enough electricity to power about 30,000 homes. The company has not revealed the site for the planned project, but says it expects the systems to be operational by late next year.

Meanwhile, on Maui, developer Dowling Co. expects the passing of HB 2502 will help speed its efforts to build a 40-50-acre solar farm on the Makena property it bought last year, which includes the Maui Prince Hotel and two golf courses.

“We have set the very ambitious goal of developing a net-zero-energy community,” Jennifer Stites, Dowling Co.’s green development manager, wrote in supporting testimony.

Stites said the proposed solar farm would be on land with E-classified soil.

“They are not suitable for the cultivation of crops and, because of the limited acreage, they are not suitable for grazing or pasture lands,” Stites wrote. “If we do not use this land for a solar farm, it will remain barren and unproductive.”

Developer Castle & Cooke Hawaii also wants to use 10 acres of agricultural lands on Lanai for a 1.5-megawatt solar farm, saying the bill’s passage is “essential to our efforts.”

“Castle & Cooke’s proposed solar energy facility will be placed on land that has been fallow for more than 20 years,” wrote Tim Hill, an executive vice president and head of the company’s renewable energy programs on Lanai. “[The] facilities will not displace any farmers or create a competitive situation for natural resources.”

Competition for ranchers

The Maui County Farm Bureau expressed some concern about the legislation, noting potential competition for the lands from solar facility operators.

“These nonagricultural uses are able to pass on their costs to customers [so] they will be willing to pay a higher price for the lands than farmers or ranchers,” wrote Warren Watanabe, the organization’s executive director.

Morita thinks the best scenario would be one where the renewable energy facility is secondary to agricultural activities.

“By still having the land available for agricultural use, it could benefit the farmers by giving them revenues from leasing their land for renewable energy uses,” she said.

The state Department of Agriculture shares a similar view and has asked lawmakers to consider adding to the bill: “Where solar energy facility is compatible with agricultural uses and activities on the parcel and adjacent parcels.”

Supporters of the bill say the way solar farms are configured often allows for livestock grazing and low-rising crop production.

nkalani@bizjournals.com | 955-8001

Date: 4/1/08
Subject: SOPOGY NAMES ROGER LAY MARKET MANAGER OF THE SOUTHWEST REGION
Contact: Jane Dore, Communications
Tel: (408) 722-6292
Email: jdore@sopogy.com

SOPOGY NAMES ROGER LAY MARKET MANAGER OF THE SOUTHWEST REGION

San Jose, CA – Sopogy, Inc. manufacturer of MicroCSP™ solar technologies announced the appointment of Roger Lay as Market Manager of the Southwest Region covering Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. Based in the company’s Arizona office, Lay will oversee Southwest policy, sales and strategic planning. He will report directly to Vice President of Business Development Jim Maskrey.

Mr. Lay has 25 years of sales and customer development at successful start-up technology companies. This experience includes serving as Vice President of Sales for RedXDefense, LLC, Vice President of Business Development at NanoPoint, Vice President of Sales at CORESystems Hawaii, and Vice President of Sales at Net-HOPPER Systems, Inc. Previous positions include National Accounts Manager at IQ Software Corporation and Regional Manager at Management Control Systems, Inc. Mr. Lay also served in the US Marine Corps with a specialty in Airfield Operations.

“Here in the southwest, we are blessed with an abundance of solar radiation found in only a few spots on the planet,” said Lay. “Last year Arizona’s Governor Napolitano shared her vision of Arizona becoming ‘The Persian Gulf of solar energy’. I think her vision is right on target. In fact I think her vision can be applied more broadly to a large part of the southwestern US. I am excited about the opportunities that exist for Sopogy here, and I am delighted to play a role in the company’s rapid growth in this region.”

Mr. Lay attended the University of Alabama with a major in Biology and Jefferson State University with a major in Business Administration.

About Sopogy
Sopogy manufactures the innovative MicroCSP™ solar concentrator technology. MicroCSP™ uses optics and mirrors to focus and intensify the energy of the sun for electricity production, solar air conditioning and process heating. The technology uses traditional economics from large solar energy deployments to the industrial, commercial and utility sectors in a smaller, more cost effective and robust package. Please visit www.sopogy.com for more information.