“Having hit a number of critical product, financing and customer milestones over the past two years, Skyline Solar has reached an important inflection point in its growth,” said Bill Keating, Skyline Solar’s executive chairman. “The addition of Tom means Skyline Solar’s future as a company has never been brighter.”
Rohrs has served in executive positions at some of Silicon Valley’s top technology companies including Applied Materials, Silicon Graphics and HP. Prior to Skyline Solar, Rohrs spent three years as chairman and CEO of Electroglas. Prior to Electroglas, he served as an advisor and board member to a number of companies in the semiconductor, healthcare and energy markets. At several of these companies, Rohrs played key roles in initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions.
“I am excited to be joining Skyline Solar at a time when the company is poised to significantly scale business operations and bring its unique HGS system to the broader commercial, government and utility solar markets,” said Rohrs. “I look forward to working with the Skyline Solar team in changing the economics of solar PV for our partners and customers.”
Rohrs joins Skyline Solar just weeks after the company completed the first commercial installation of its HGS 1000 system in Nipton, California. The installation makes Nipton “the most solar town in America,” by generating up to 85 percent of the town’s electricity needs from clean and renewable solar energy. The company was also recently awarded one of the first patents under the US Patent & Trademark Office’s Green Technology Pilot Program, covering key elements of Skyline Solar’s HGS architecture. These and other significant milestones have positioned Skyline Solar for additional growth during the second half of 2010 and beyond.
“The Nipton installation completed the first phase of Skyline Solar’s development as a proven player in the commercial, government and utility-scale solar markets,” said Bob MacDonald, CTO and co-founder of Skyline Solar. “With the addition of Tom and his experience in large-scale technology companies, we can focus on bringing Skyline Solar HGS to more markets, more regions and more customers around the world, while continuing to innovate around system design and architecture. I am excited to work closely with Tom and the rest of the management team to scale up Skyline Solar.”
About Skyline Solar
Skyline Solar manufactures High Gain Solar (HGS) arrays incorporating industry-proven silicon cells, durable reflector materials and single-axis tracking into a complete, easy-to-deploy system. Skyline Solar HGS delivers ten times more energy per gram of silicon than traditional flat panel systems. Built primarily out of commodity materials and assembled using globally available manufacturing processes, Skyline Solar HGS simultaneously improves financial payback and scalability, thereby accelerating the path to grid parity.
Skyline Solar was founded in 2007 and is led by veterans of the solar energy and high volume manufacturing industries. The company is funded by NEA, other VCs and strategic investors, and by a US Department of Energy (DOE) grant. Skyline Solar went from prototype to first grid connected customer in less than one year and is in commercial manufacturing. For more information, visit www.skyline-solar.com.
Contacts Schwartz Communications for Skyline Solar Jason Morris, +1 415-512-0770 Katy Garlinghouse, +1 415-512-0770 skylinesolar@schwartz-pr.com
