PHOTON's 1^st PV Start-up Conference

The number of traditional corporations among the top solar power companies is diluting year by year. The majority of today's Top 10 cell and module producers did not even exist a decade ago.

And with solar companies' large profits and quickly growing demand for PV, more and more start-ups are attempting to become the second First Solar, or another Q-Cells, Suntech or SunPower.

When PHOTON surveyed PV start-ups in North America recently, it found at least 50 solar companies that were seeking to commercialize new concepts in silicon production, wafers, cells, modules or inverters. Combined, the American companies raised over $1 billion in venture capital in 2007 alone. And every few days, another solar start-up manages to close a successful financing round; often the company name was unheard of before that point.

PHOTON's 1^st PV Start-up Conference aims to bring light into the huge PV start-up scene. The target is to provide a networking platform for both start-ups and investors, as well as everybody in the solar sector and beyond, interested in the latest PV developments happening in private companies.

The 1^st PV Start-up Conference will provide:

• Company presentations of promising non-public, early-stage PV start-ups in the fields of silicon technologies, thin-films, concentrators and system technology
  
  
• Insight into various PV technologies: Status, Potential and Challenges
  
  
• Case studies: Financing start-ups – the VC's perspective
  
  
• A panel discussion