Grape Solar, Patriot Solar Group to boost product offering

EUGENE, USA: Grape Solar Inc., a leading solar photovoltaic module solution provider, and Patriot Solar Group (PSG), a company engineering and manufacturing solar trackers and mounts, have partnered to provide complete equipment solutions to the solar market and reduce overall customer costs.

Albion, Michigan-based Patriot Solar Group will now offer its customers Grape Solar’s 175- to 280-watt, high-caliber photovoltaic (PV) panels to pair with its innovative solar mount and tracking systems.

Grape Solar of Eugene, Ore. will expand its product offering to include Patriot Solar’s innovative tracking systems to its network of 5,000 independent solar installers in the United States and Canada. Grape Solar will purchase and provide to installers Patriot Solar Group’s horizontal pole mounts and one- or two-axis trackers and racking systems for various applications.

“This is a great partnership for both parties,” explained Ocean Yuan, president of Grape Solar. “We now greatly broaden our reach into solar markets where trackers are used.”

Both parties expect to sell more than 10 megawatts of complete systems within the next 12 months through their networks of installers and potential customers.

“Patriot is thrilled about becoming Grape Solar’s primary tracking system provider, and now being able to offer our customers the excellent PV modules and related technical support for which they have been asking,” said Jeff Mathie, president of Patriot Solar Group. “This is a win for our companies and for the solar industry.”

A solar panel system paired with a tracking system produces as much as 30 percent more energy than a static-mounted system. Both fixed tilt and active tracking systems yield more energy from solar panels by titling the modules toward the sun’s arc based on a location’s optimal energy tilt angle.

Through their partnership, Patriot Solar Group and Grape Solar plan to penetrate the South American solar market via existing satellite dish distribution channels Patriot Solar sister company, Patriot Antenna Systems, has already forged. The first shipment will begin in May 2010 to Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina.

“In addition to our North American sales, we anticipate doing about $50 million in business in Argentina alone,” stated Yuan. “Including business we expect in Brazil, Peru, Chile, Puerto Rico, and other countries, we could reach sales of $100 million in South America by the end of 2010."