SolarTAC Technologies Will Be Replicated In Other Countries- Smith
BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
The executive director of Solar Technology Acceleration Centre (SolarTAC) Colorado, Mr Dustin Smith said though the company is dominant in the United States that the technology would be replicated in countries willing to invest in renewable energy.
To this end, he disclosed that the parent company, MRIGlobal that co-manages the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the Department of Energy would collaborate with countries interested in installing the technology.
He revealed this while briefing newsmen in Colorado yesterday at the ongoing Virtual Reporting Tour (VRT) on "Combatting the Climate Crisis Through US Innovation", organised by Washington Foreign Press Centre (FPC), an arm of the US Department of State in collaboration with Meridian International Center.
SolarTAC is the largest test facility for solar technologies in the United States that offers opportunity for researching, demonstrating, testing, and validating a broad range of solar technologies at the early commercial or near-commercial stage of development.
In his presentation titled, "Energy Research and Commercial Solar Facility Design", he listed three types of solar as thermal, photovoltaic and concentrated photovoltaics often called CASP, saying that concentrated solar is more complex and expensive to manufacture.
He disclosed that concentrated solar contains dual axis tracking instead of single axis that is found in other products, even as he added that companies in the US hardly produced concentrated solar.
Smith, who was recently awarded the 'Colorado Energy Innovator of the Year' by the Colorado Clean Tech Industries, noted that he spent 20 years in the design and construction of nuclear power plants and high-rise retail stores before setting up SolarTAC.
According to him, "You don’t have to prove your technology to us to get onto the site. We’re here to help you prove your technology to the world. We take a very neutral position when it comes to either technology or politics or the laws that get enacted".
Smith stated that the most unreliable component of a solar system is the inverter, assuring that his company is committed to producing long-lasting batteries that would power the technology.
On whether developing countries would meet up with full migration to clean energy by 2030 in line with the Paris Climate Change agreement, he emphasised that there's a huge difference between signing an agreement and implementing it.
He said that the private sector, governments and stakeholders in the energy and environment sectors must join forces to attain the target.
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