Concentrating Solar SolFocus Looking for Funds
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/earth2tech/~3/316278921/
Concentrating solar photovoltaic systems are a weird bird. They fall somewhere between the massive solar thermal plants being built in the desert, and the standard photovoltaic panels that are becoming common on rooftops around the world. Unlike standard solar panel systems, “concentrating PV” setups use arrays with lenses and curved mirrors to focus the sunlight onto cells, which can produce more power with less material — SolFocus notes a 1 square centimeter cell can capture more than 500 square centimeters of sunlight. The setup reduces the amount of largely silicon-based panels used, and can significantly cut down on the cost of the system.
SolFocus is a little over two years old and is trying to grow fast in an attempt to commercialize its technology. The company is already selling select products to customers for installations as test sites, like a 500-kilowatt installation for the Institute of Concentration Photovoltaic Systems program in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Last July it bought Madrid-based solar tracking company InSpira to help scale the business by bringing down the cost of the trackers it uses.
The VentureWire report says SolFocus is now looking to raise funds for “growth and manufacturing.” Previously the company was funded by New Enterprise Associates, Moser Baer India, David Gelbaum, Metasystem Group, NGEN Partners and Yellowstone Capital.
Japanese TV broadcaster NHK has demonstrated 
Poised and waiting for ATI's latest graphics card to hit, Nvidia immediately fired off the 9800 GTX+, a nimbler version of its behemoth 9800 GTX, aggressively priced at $229 to put serious pressure on the $199 HD 4850. Benchmarks comparing the two weren't available yesterday, but PC Perspective has 'em up now. In short, while the HD 4850 can mostly keep up with Nvidia's older, regular 9800 GTX, the steroid-injected 9800 GTX+ has enough juice to edge it out in almost every single benchmark. The Radeon HD 4850 has about a month on the shelf to itself before the 9800 GTX+ hits though. Check out PC Perspective for more graphs and numbers than your brain wants to deal with on a Friday. [
Next month, a commercial satellite named the GeoEye-1 will go into the Earth's orbit. Its highest resolution photos—shots that will spot a 16-inch beachball—will be reserved for military use. However, slightly lower resolution imagery will be made available in the commercial sector, like Google Earth.
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