Project manager Gillian Smith's job is to co-ordinate the company's own contributions to the satellite: power systems, solar panels and other hardware.

BBC: First Scottish-built satellite UKube-1 to launch in 2013

R??ter says that from the day he started Conergy with a loan from his mother, he always used the best solar technology available and engineered his own hardware for mounting panels and connecting them to the grid.

FORBES: Sunny Optimist

Another wrinkle: Developers who once bought First Solar and SunPower panels will increasingly be competing with them for projects, and may therefore turn elsewhere for the hardware.

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