Commercial Development of Solar Cogeneration Technology. Delivers Five Times the Clean Energy.
Cogenra Solar™, a provider of distributed solar cogeneration systems and renewable energy service solutions, has been awarded a $1.5 million research grant from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration (CSI RD&D) Program. The funding will support the accelerated development and commercial deployment of Cogenra’s proprietary solar cogeneration technology and will finance the company’s demonstration project at the Sonoma Wine Company in Graton, California.
“Cogenra is honored to receive this vote of confidence from the CPUC, validating our high impact approach to distributed solar. Solar cogeneration enables the highest utilization of the sun’s energy, delivering five times the energy, three times the greenhouse gas reductions and twice the savings over standard PV panels,” said Cogenra CEO and founder Gilad Almogy.
“The research grant will enable Cogenra to demonstrate the validity of our solution, while exploring additional applications and business models.”
Cogenra’s solar cogeneration solution encompasses photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies that work in tandem to efficiently produce solar hot water and electricity.
The 272 kW electric and thermal installation at the Sonoma Wine Company employs 15 individual Cogenra SunBase™ modules to support the facility’s winery operations, reducing natural gas and grid-fed electricity consumption.
Cogenra joins eight other grant recipients, including SunPower Corp, the University of California Davis and SolarCity, in the second round of CSI RD&D Program grants awarded by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to support the development of improved photovoltaic production technologies and innovative business models.
Cogenra Solar and the Sonoma Wine Company will contribute in kind funds of $2.7 million, bringing the total research project value to over $4 million. In addition to the commercial deployment of Cogenra’s technology, the funding will support the rollout of a unique solar-as-a-service model specifically designed to address the benefits and extended savings of solar cogeneration while eliminating cost and operational barriers to customers.
About Cogenra Solar
Cogenra Solar is a distributed solar cogeneration company that combines photovoltaic and hot water collection to deliver low cost electricity and heat generation for commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. With the industry’s first Heat & Power Purchase Agreement (HPPA), Cogenra offers clean, renewable energy below utility rates while reducing natural gas and grid-fed electricity consumption. Cogenra is located in Mountain View, California; please visit www.cogenra.com for more information.
About the California Solar Initiative RD&D Program
The CSI RD&D Program is administered by Itron Inc., as Program Manager, under the oversight of the CPUC. With a budget of US$50m running through 2016, the CSI RD&D Program awarded US$9.3m for the first round of grants issued in March of 2010. With the new grants the total amount of solar PV projects funded by the CSI RD&D Program totals US$23.9m. The goal of the program is to fund research, development, demonstration, and deployment of solar technologies that will reduce the cost and accelerate the installation of technologies that employ solar energy to generate or store electricity or to reduce the use of natural gas.
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