Consolidation in the Solar Industry
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Consolidation in the Solar Industry Meet the Panel Crosslink Capital, Alain Harrus, Partner Alain has spent more than 25 years in the semiconductor industry as a technologist and an investor in high-growth early- stage companies. He began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories' advanced materials development group where he developed thermal and plasma processes for thin film dielectrics deposition for semiconductor device manufacturing. From there, Alain joined Novellus Systems, leaving briefly to join Lam Research as director of deposition technology in the chemical vapor deposition business unit. Throughout his tenure at Novellus, his roles ranged from director of technology for dielectrics to director of strategic marketing, where he championed the company's pursuit of a total copper metallization solution for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. In February 1996, he became Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Novellus, chartered with evaluating new technologies and opportunities designed to fuel Novellus' growth in target markets. Before joining Crosslink, Alain was a General Partner at Compass Technology Partners investing in technology-intensive, early stage companies. About Crosslink Capital: Crosslink manages over $600 million in public equity long/short strategies with a focus on technology. Key to these strategies is Crosslink’s ability to leverage the insights of our public and venture capital investment teams. These teams manage three families of funds: our private equity venture funds, our public equity hedge fund, and our unique hybrid crossover funds. Skyline Solar, Tim Keating, VP of Marketing and Field Operations Tim joined Skyline in January 2008 during fund raising. Tim founded the Marketing and Field Operations at Skyline Solar. Tim gained his experience during his extensive Intel career and since Intel as a venture consultant serving companies as an advisor and operations executive during funding and company ramp phase. Tim is a 22-year veteran of Intel where he was the managing director of Intel Capital Europe based in Munich and London. He led the European team which made 70 equity investments between 1998 and 2002. About Skyline Solar: Skyline Solar manufactures integrated concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems, incorporating industry-proven silicon cells, durable mirrors and single-axis tracking into easy-to-deploy energy solution. The Skyline Solar X14 System delivers a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) below ten cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), including incentives, in areas with high sun exposure. Built primarily out of commodity materials and assembled using globally available manufacturing processes, the Skyline X14 System offers customers excellent financial returns and outstanding scalability. SolarCity, Ben Tarbell, VP of Products Ben Tarbell is responsible for SolarCity's new product development and deployment. He leads SolarCity's efforts to bring new money-saving energy technologies and products to customers. Prior to joining SolarCity, Ben was responsible for product development at MiaSolé, a thin-film solar module manufacturer in Silicon Valley. Ben has also led the sustainable product design offering at IDEO in Palo Alto, and worked at the clean tech venture capital firm Nth Power in San Francisco. Ben has a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, an MS in mechanical engineering design from Stanford University, and an MBA from Stanford University. Ben supports GRID Alternatives, a non-profit organization that installs affordable solar energy systems for families in need. AGRION LLC | 5 Third Street Suite 520 | San Francisco, CA 94103 | Tel: +1 415.882.4615 | www.agrion.org Consolidation in the Solar Industry About SolarCity: SolarCity is a provider of solar energy system design, financing, installation and related services and also builds charging stations for electric vehicles. It is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with additional locations in Berkeley, Foster City, Culver City (Los Angeles), Santa Ana (Orange County), Pomona, Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Lancaster and San Diego, California; Phoenix, Tucson Arizona; Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; and Washington DC Total S.A., Marc Vermeersch, Head of R&D Dept., Solar and New Energies Marc Vermeersch received a Ph.D. degree in solid-state physics in 1993 from the University of Namur (FUNDP, Belgium) where he worked on research applied to semiconductors and ceramics surfaces and interfaces formed with metals. From 1993 to 1995 he received a European postdoctoral fellowship and studied dielectrics and the dielectric behavior of insulators (FUNDP & Univ. Paris 6&7). From 1996 to 1998 he completed a postgraduate degree in Management and Business Administration at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL-IAG), Belgium. In 1995 his professional career in the industry starts with the SAINT-GOBAIN Group where he occupied a first position of Research Engineer (1995-1998, Saint-Gobain Glass, Belgium) in plasma physics applied to large scale coating on glass. His training and first industrial experience gave him the opportunity to move to production as a Process & Technology Manager (1998-2003, Saint-Gobain Glass Coating, Belgium) responsible for thin film deposition technologies and product development dedicated to architectural and automotive glass applications. While remaining in the building and architectural field he took later (2003-2006, Saint-Gobain Terreal, Toulouse France) a position of R&D Manager in charge of the Building Envelope Performance: understanding and modeling, energy efficiency issues in building technologies, innovation for (1) building performance improvement and (2) the design and the integration of new systems and components (including PV), integration of building regulations (mainly France). In 2006, Marc VERMEERSCH was recruited by TOTAL (Paris) as a Solar Technology Engineer responsible for bringing scientific knowledge and technology expertise to the Renewable division of the Gas & Power Branch. In October 2007 he was entrusted by this Branch and the new Research and Development division with the responsibility to build the Solar & New Energies department as group leader. Today the continuous growth of this department at an international level. About Total SA: Total is one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world, with activities in more than 130 countries. The Group is also a first rank player in chemicals. Its 93,000 employees put their expertise to work in every part of the industry – exploration and production of oil and natural gas, refining and marketing, new energies, trading, and chemicals. Total is working to help satisfy the global demand for energy, both today and tomorrow. Total is also diversifying its offer to help meet a growing energy demand in the long term. The Group invests and is actively engaged in the development of renewable energy, particularly solar and biomass, through its industrial assets and R&D partnerships Wells Fargo, Puon A. Penn, Senior Vice President, Head of CleanTech & Emerging Markets Puon Penn is a senior vice president and head of the National CleanTech & Emerging Tech Markets sector at Wells Fargo within the Technology Banking Group, part of Commercial Banking. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., he manages a team of banking professionals who serve the financial needs of businesses in technology and clean technology nationwide. Mr Penn began his career with Wells Fargo in 1998 in the International Group. He moved on to become a relationship manager in the Regional Commercial Banking Office (RCBO) in Modesto, Calif., serving the financial needs of middle- AGRION LLC | 5 Third Street Suite 520 | San Francisco, CA 94103 | Tel: +1 415.882.4615 | www.agrion.org Consolidation in the Solar Industry market companies. In 2003, he joined the Securities Investment Group as a financial analyst covering the food and beverage, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, and financial services sectors. In 2006, Mr Penn was promoted to loan team manager for the RCBO in Palo Alto. About Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization.Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card. In 2011, Wells Fargo was the 23rd largest company. Westinghouse Solar, Barry Cinnamon, President, CEO & Director Barry Cinnamon is a long-time advocate of solar power and is a widely recognized solar power expert. Mr. Cinnamon started his career in solar energy in the late 1970’s as a researcher into new flat plate and concentrating collector designs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he designed and installed active solar, passive solar and ground coupled heat pump systems. Mr. Cinnamon’s work in solar power computer modeling led him into the software industry, where he served as CEO of Software Publishing Corporation, and founded Allegro New Media a multimedia software publisher, which he led to an IPO in 1995. He resumed his solar career in 2001 when he began installing rooftop solar power systems in California. His work on reducing costs of rooftop solar power systems has led to over 30 issued or applied for patents held by Westinghouse Solar. About Westinghouse Solar: Westinghouse Solar is a designer and manufacturer of solar power systems. In 2007, Westinghouse