Solar Technology Acceleration Center Is Powering Up

AURORA, Colo., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ - Members of the Solar
Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC) and supporters convened in Aurora,
Colo., today, to mark a milestone in "Powering Up" one of the world's largest
solar test and demonstration facilities. Since announcing the initial launch
of SolarTAC one year ago, the site infrastructure development has progressed
to the point where members can now break ground for their planned solar
technology implementation and testing.

SolarTAC originated when six public and private sector entities -- Abengoa
Solar, the City of Aurora, the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory,
Midwest Research Institute (MRI), SunEdison, and Xcel Energy -- joined forces
to build a site where member companies can bring their early commercial or
near-commercial stage solar technologies for testing and demonstration under
actual field conditions.

Today's occasion also included the announcement that the U.S. Department of
Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Electric Power
Research Institute (EPRI) have both signed letters of intent to join SolarTAC.

Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer kicked-off the afternoon's activities, by noting the
economic impact of SolarTAC and the emerging solar industry. "SolarTAC takes
renewable energy from a nice idea to a real-world impact. It's a company's
secret weapon for creating commercially successful business," said Tauer. The
City provided the land for SolarTAC and is developing an adjacent area of
1,900 acres as the Aurora Renewable Energy Campus.

"We welcome SolarTAC into Colorado's New Energy Economy ecosystem," said
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. "The testing and research conducted at this
facility will tie-in well with the state's solar industry, further enhancing
Colorado's position as a gateway for high performing solar products that lower
energy costs while drawing more companies and clean energy jobs."

"SolarTAC will be an important part of finding real world solutions to
developing solar power," said Dick Kelly, chairman and CEO of Xcel Energy. "We
believe that through SolarTAC, we will develop technologies that are more
efficient, reliable and cost effective and will allow us to use more of this
abundant, clean energy resource to meet our customers' future energy needs."

By the end of this year, nearly $1.8 million of infrastructure work will be
completed by MRI, SolarTAC's management and operating contractor, to prepare
the site for member companies to move-in equipment and construct
member-specific facilities. The work includes grading, drainage and soil
erosion control, access roads, electric power supply and distribution, fire
protection, sewer and water lines, communications lines, fencing and security.

"We have made steady progress in developing the SolarTAC site and in
identifying potential new member companies that will further accelerate the
commercialization of solar technologies," said Roger Harris, Ph.D., MRI
associate vice president and director of Energy and Life Sciences."

NREL membership in SolarTAC will allow the national laboratory to better
engage with industry to solve challenges in increasing the amount of solar
electricity produced in the U.S. Among other projects, NREL will install a $2
million pilot-scale advanced thermal energy storage test and evaluation
facility at SolarTAC to help improve heat storage technologies that can offset
variability.

"The collaborative aspects of SolarTAC make it a natural fit for EPRI, where
one of EPRI's roles is to build industry collaboratives to support R&D," said
Bryan Hannegan, Vice President of Environment and Renewable Generation at
EPRI. "Commercial renewable energy technologies, such as advanced solar PV and
concentrating solar power with storage, are expected to make significant
contributions to the world's energy supply in coming decades, and the work at
SolarTAC will help make that possible."
At this stage in the site development, Abengoa Solar and SunEdison are ready
to begin installation of equipment and facilities for testing and evaluation
of advanced solar technologies.

SunEdison's initial deployments at SolarTAC will include a proprietary, low
cost, recycled, ballasted ground mount system designed for installation on a
variety of ground conditions. The array will include examples of all major
photovoltaic (PV) module technologies, including: standard and high efficiency
crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon (a-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe),
copper indium diselenide (CIS) and both low and high concentration PV systems.
The initial array will also be used for expanded testing of distributed direct
current power management and advanced inverter technologies that offer the
potential to significantly increase energy yield. The arrays will be
monitored using the SunEdison Energy and Environmental Data System (SEEDS).
SolarTAC will serve as an important beta test site for SEEDS as new
capabilities are added.

"SunEdison is pleased to join with our partners in reaching this important
milestone in the development of SolarTAC," said SunEdison chief technology
officer, Mark Culpepper. "One of the most significant long-term opportunities
presented by SolarTAC will be the ability to study the way PV systems connect
to and interact with the grid."

In the future, SunEdison plans to gradually increase the number and variety of
module technologies deployed on the site and will leverage SolarTAC to
validate new mounting systems, installation methods, and electrical
configurations to minimize cost and maximize energy harvest. SolarTAC will
provide an invaluable test-bed to study forecasting, variability, energy
storage, and reactive power control along with other methods and technologies
to ensure safe and reliable interconnection of high penetration levels of PV
on the grid.

The Abengoa Solar Facility at SolarTAC will be used for testing, validating,
and demonstrating advanced and emerging concentrating solar power (CSP)
technologies, including outdoor studies and readiness deployment of prototype
systems. "We look forward to the progress we will be able to achieve in
advancing our technologies at the SolarTAC site," said Hank Price, vice
president of Technology Development. "The site will be a long-term
experimental test-bed for Abengoa Solar's R&D technology and it will provide
an environment to collaborate with universities, national laboratories, and
other solar researchers."

Abengoa Solar currently plans to install an operational scale CSP collector
loop and associated assembly building at the site to test and validate new
designs of its technologies. At today's event, Abengoa Solar displayed
several modules of the Astro, one of its established concentrating solar
collector designs.

During the event, the nearly 150 attendees were updated on the site
development plans, and had an opportunity to see solar technology
demonstrations led by Abengoa Solar and SunEdison representatives.

SOURCE SolarTAC

Allison Lenthall of Abengoa Solar, +1-202-558-7739, Allison@renewcomm.com; Kim
Stuart of City of Aurora, +1-720-427-5335, Kstuart@auroragov.org; Jeff Brehm
of EPRI, +1-704-595-2521, jbrehm@epri.com; Linda Cook of MRI, +1-816-360-1943,
lcook@mriresearch.org; George Douglas of NREL, +1-303-275-4096,
George.douglas@nrel.gov; Rob Wyse of SunEdison, +1-212-920-1470, rob@m1pr.com;
or Tom Henley of Xcel Energy, +1-303-294-2300, Tom.henley@xcelenergy.com