Mage Solar photo blog: Spreading the PV message with a Dublin (Georgia) drawl

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  Over the main entrance to Mage Solar Academy a panel supplies the juice for the LED light over the door. (Photos by Tom Cheyney)
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  Solar on a pole charges an LED lighting system illuminating the Mage Solar driveway signage.
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  The electric car charger features 16 panels with an installed capacity of about 3.8KW.
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  Fill 'er up!
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  The electric car charger installed in the Mage Solar parking lot resulted from a team effort.
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  A pair of Mage Solar crystalline-silicon modules "installed" as part of a sloped-shingle roof teaching aid.
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  Several different roof types are used to demonstrate racking gear and techniques at the academy.
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  A shelf stores a standard tool set and other accessories for installers in training.
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  One employee's truck sported a diverse set of bumper stickers, with PV proudly displayed among them.
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  A new breed of solar supporter?

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Tom Cheyney

Tom Cheyney is former senior editor of PV-Tech / Photovoltaics International magazine. A veteran technology journalist / editor / blogger, he covered the semiconductor, microelectronics and solar sectors for many years - since fax machines were state of the art. His PV-Tech blog has become a must-read for industry insiders and observers. He was also chief editor of "The Rise of Thin-Film Solar Technology" book published in early 2010.

A few hours’ drive south of Atlanta, Georgia—and a few thousand miles from Ireland—the town of Dublin is home to another German company seeking to plow the green fields of the burgeoning US PV marketscape: Mage Solar. In addition to its North American HQ and new crystalline-silicon module line located in a former Rockwell Automation plant, the firm has set up an intriguing educational center called the Mage Solar Academy.

Although the company’s brand may be part of the fledgling institute’s name, the effort goes far beyond any parochial corporate intent. By training new installers, potential solar entrepreneurs, and other interested parties in the boot-camp and PV101 basics as well as NABCEP certification essentials, the academy--as well as via collaborations with local technical community colleges and talks at regional town-hall meetings--may be the start of something critical to the market development and growth of photovoltaics in the southeast US.

As I toured the Mage campus, several photo opps presented themselves, which I share in this graphically oriented blog.

The first set of photos reveal how the company has already started to deploy PV panels in small applications, with plans for a more significant rooftop system and parking canopies on the drawing board. The 3.8KW solar-powered electric-car charger, said to be the only one in the state outside of Atlanta, is more symbolic than pragmatic—for now.

Since the weather can get kinda feisty in Dublin, sometimes the classes at the academy need to move indoors. Mage has set up some mock rooftops and other teaching tools inside one of its buildings, including a custom solar simulator (not shown here) that can provide 12KW of light—about 100W/m2—to power up the modules.

The final pair of photos, my favorites, were shot in the parking lot, offering a telling—and surprising—combination of bumper-stickered statements on one anonymous employee’s truck. Down in Dixie, some solar supporters are a different breed than many of their fellow believers elsewhere in the USA, a testament to the nonpartisan, ecumenical nature of the PV gospel.

(Note: If you’re reading this on the mobile version of PV-Tech, I suggest you check it out on our full site, since the photos tell the story.)