SoloPower, a San Jose, California-based manufacturer of high efficiency, lightweight and flexible thin-film solar cells and modules, was named a winner of the TiE50 Awards, Silicon Valley’s premier annual awards program for global technology startups. SoloPower will receive the award in the category of clean technology and energy at TiEcon, the world’s largest conference for entrepreneurs, which will take place this year on May 18 and 19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California.
“It’s an honor for SoloPower to be recognized by TiE50 for our work to make solar power the primary energy source for the world’s commercial and industrial roofs,” said Tim Harris, CEO, SoloPower. “The award comes at an exciting time for SoloPower: our next generation solar panel recently achieved a record aperture area efficiency for flexible CIGS modules of 13.4%; we’re in the midst of unrolling our next line of solar solutions; and we’re hiring for our state-of-the-art, high-volume manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon, which will begin commercial production later this year.”
The TiE50 selection process involved meticulous planning, screening and judging by a team of over 40 prominent entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives and other domain experts. Winners were selected as the most enterprising startups of 2012 in five sectors that are driving today’s economy: Internet/Social Networking, Software/Cloud Computing, Life Sciences, Wireless/Mobile and Energy/CleanTech.
TiE is a global, not-for-profit network of entrepreneurs and professionals dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. TiE provides a platform for mentoring, networking and education, to entrepreneurs with over 14,000 members in 54 chapters across 13 countries.