Press release

Today’s SunRISE II Solar Summit marks the finale of this year’s SunRISE Challenge, an innovation accelerator program run as a collaboration between Royal DSM, Fraunhofer TechBridge™, and Greentown Labs. SunRISE is designed to accelerate innovation through partnerships between solar startups and DSM. The Challenge leverages eligibility for investment by DSM Venturing and/or partnership with DSM Advanced Solar, Greentown Labs' “Launch” startup accelerator program and technical validation services provided by the Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE.

The finalists of the SunRISE II Challenge were:

• Leading Edge Crystal Technologies
  Novel manufacturing process to make silicon wafers with higher efficiency and lower cost that fit into existing module manufacturing processes without any changes.
• NOMADD Desert Solar Solutions
  Low-cost waterless automated solar panel cleaning mechanism, which significantly reduces yield losses due to dust.
• SunDensity
  Proprietary photonic technology to produce nano-coated solar glass that maximizes conversion of solar radiation into electric power.
• SunSniffer
  Low-cost module-integrated sensor for monitoring PV systems in real-time, enabling increase of energy output and lower maintenance costs.

During the Summit, DSM Venturing announced having closed investment rounds in LECT and NOMADD earlier this week. DSM Advanced Solar also entered into a joint development agreement with SunSniffer; and SunDensity’s material is being tested at Fraunhofer CSE.

Today’s Summit featured a panel on "The Future of Solar" with leaders representing different areas of the industry moderated by MJ Shiao, Head of Americas Research at GTM Research. Panelists included:

• David Buzby, Private Investor and Board Member of Cambrian Innovation, Stem and Paragon Power, former CEO of SunEdison
• Joel Jean, solar researcher at MIT, Executive Director of the Tata-MIT GridEdge Solar
• Jigar Shah, Co-Founder of Generate Capital, Co-Founder and former CEO of SunEdison
• Pieter Wolters, Vice-President, DSM Innovation Center; Managing Director DSM Venturing

The Summit concluded with a live recording of Greentech Media’s Energy Gang, a weekly podcast on energy, cleantech, and the environment hosted by Stephen Lacey, Editor-in-Chief of Greentech Media; Katherine Hamilton, Co-founder and Chair at 38 North Solutions, a public policy firm focused on clean energy and innovation; and Jigar Shah. This was the Energy Gang’s 207th episode and can be accessed via SoundCloud, iTunes, and the Stitcher app.