About Us

At a Glance

 The Solar Energy Consortium is an industry-led not-for-profit, formed in 2007, headquartered in Kingston, in the Hudson Valley Region of NYS. It currently has ten employees.

To expedite the adoption of solar energy in the United States and create a solar R&D and manufacturing cluster in New York State, TSEC brings together industry, academic, and economic development partners to find solutions to the technical, economic, and marketing challenges facing the growing solar industry. TSEC's objectives include:

• Attract and grow sustainable solar energy-related companies. That work created over 250 new higher skill manufacturing/R&D jobs in 2009, projected to total 800 jobs by year-end 2010
• Advance solar innovations - Foster solar energy-related R&D
• Create solar solutions by supporting solar technology applications in the marketplace
• Disseminate information about advances in basic and applied solar energy research, products, systems, and services

Industry Partners

TSEC forms strategic alliances with industry partners to attract global leaders and to create solar industry markets in NYS. Industry partners total some 70 companies including IBM, Prism Solar Technologies, SolarTech Renewables, Precision Flow Technologies, Sprectrawatt, and EarthKind Solar. TSEC also partners with economic development organizations throughout the region and state to provide the technical and economic resources required to grow the solar industry.

Academic Partners

Many of todays highly skilled solar researchers and scientists are scattered across NYS in public and private universities. TSEC has formed several academic partnerships lining them together to collaborate on market-focused solar products and technologies and resolve issues associated with new technology applications. These researchers include an array of engineers, integrators, installers, and application specialists.

Today our committed university partners include Binghamton University, Clarkson University, SUNY New Paltz, and the City University of New York (CUNY). The technical expertise and synergy between these institutions constitute the means for achieving global leadership in the solar technology industry. TSEC's academic partnerships will continue to grow.

Strategic Positioning

TSEC accomplishes its core mission because its entrepreneurial origins enable staff to comprehend the untapped potential and complexities inherent in the solar energy marketplace. Moreover TSEC attracts “insider” industry experts as staff.

Led by industry senior executives and staffed by scientists and engineers, the TSEC team understands the operating and financial challenges and the market risks facing global manufacturing and R&D firms who seek entry to NYS’s potentially lucrative solar sector.

TSEC adds value in the form of financial and technical operating support. This typically involves facilitating strategic relationships with and among industrial and academic partners to solve technical problems, improve production, lower unit costs, and remove institutional barriers impeding a firm’s financial viability and business plan. TSEC’s ability to offer this support on a “no fee basis” in a public/private partnership arrangement builds outstanding cooperative relationships. As a result, TSEC has earned the respect, trust and confidence of industry and academic leaders.

TSEC collaborates with university partners by creating alliances with industry partners that accelerate technology transfer and new product development.

TSEC assists businesses with their marketing strategies, substantially improving their chance of success often by building strategic partnerships that support their business interests by creating a regional demand for their products. TSEC’s core mission, technological expertise, and access to seed funding1 is coupled with its innate ability to work quickly, efficiently, and collaboratively. Since its inception in 2007, TSEC’s global reputation as a solar business “enabler” has grown in large part due to TSEC’s aggressive and passionate support of the solar industry at the business plan level. This on-the-ground support increases the value of TSEC’s expertise, making its input an integral component of each solar firm’s strategy as they move forward with their respective business plans.

Objectives 2010-2014

Advance Solar Innovations. TSEC wishes to seek out, advise, facilitate, and manage collaborative projects with industry and academic partners to:

• Improve the performance and reduce the cost of solar PV, solar thermal systems, and solar appliances.
• Improve the reliability and reduce the time-induced degradation of solar equipment.
• Lower the cost and improve the efficiency and reliability of solar cell manufacturing

Create Solar Solutions

• Work with government, business, and academia to overcome technical, economic, and institutional barriers that inhibit the widespread use of solar energy
• Support the development of solar applications and appliances that can reduce overall usage of fossil fuels
• Create market demand for solar products including those that use solar PV and and solar thermal technology especially for use in the urban environment

Attract and support Solar-Related Industry - Enable Manufacturing

• Engage solar manufacturers in assessing the benefits of locating in New York State
• Collaborate with local, regional, and state economic development agencies to provide incentives and decrease barriers to solar industry expansion
• Support potential and current partners in accessing funding, technology, and other resources to build, expand, and sustain operations in NY State

Support the Dissemination and Adoption of Advances in Solar Technology

• Convene academic/industry conferences
• Publish an e-bulletin for renewable energy stakeholders
• Provide financial modeling services to support business industry plans

Long Term Outcomes - Tracking Our Progress

• Regional use of solar PV and solar thermal in commercial applications will increase
• Utility scale solar farms will be operational throughout NYS: one underway, others in the planning stage
• The solar manufacturing industry will add 1400 skilled jobs in NYS over the next five years. Achieved 266 jobs in 2009; 800 projected by year-end 2010
• The cost of producing solar PV energy will achieve "grid parity"
• The U.S. will surpass Europe and Asia in implementing solar technology