CPV Consortium elects new board members

SUNNYVALE, USA: The CPV Consortium, a non-profit concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar industry organization, has added two respected solar industry veterans to its board: Andreas Bett, PhD and Martha Symko-Davies, PhD. The appointments come at a time when the Consortium has commissioned the University of California, Berkeley to undertake an economic analysis of the CPV carbon footprint, cradle-to-cradle.

The CPV Consortium is dedicated to supporting the development and optimizing the success of CPV technology as a mainstream energy source for distributed and utility-scale deployments. It is a global organization comprised of members from all segments of the CPV industry including system manufacturers, cell suppliers, power generators, tracker suppliers, system integrators, project developers, universities and research laboratories.

Dr. Bett is a deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy ISE, where he leads a department focused on materials for solar cells and technology. Dr. Symko-Davies is a senior supervisor of research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Both have been elected by the members of the CPV Consortium to serve on the board of directors.

“With the appointments of Drs. Bett and Symko-Davies, the CPV Consortium gains decades of expertise from the highest levels of solar industry research and development,” said Nancy Hartsoch, director of the CPV Consortium. “Their insight from Fraunhofer, the DOE and NREL will broaden the perspective of the organization, and hopefully facilitate the benefits that public and private cooperation can bring to an emerging technology at a critical time for CPV commercialization.”

Dr. Bett is one of the most respected CPV experts in the world. His Fraunhofer department includes the group “III-V-epitaxy and solar cells,” which is one of the largest and most esteemed groups active in research and development for CPV cells, modules and components. He is also an active member in the IEC which develops standards for CPV. Bett is currently the chair and main organizer of the 6th International Conference on Concentrating Photovoltaics, which will be held in April 2010 in Freiburg, Germany.

Dr. Symko-Davies has worked for NREL since she received her doctorate in 1997. Symko-Davies is currently the manager of the PV Technology Incubator, a position she has maintained since its inception three years ago. While at NREL, she has held a variety of positions including photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing technology technical manager and high performance PV project manager. Symko-Davies is also an IEEE PVSC organizing committee member and APS member. She has authored and co-authored over 30 publications about the PV industry, and CPV technology throughout her career.