SECTION INTRODUCTION: Concentrated Photovoltaics

After years of fits and starts, the concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) industry is abuzz with excitement, with the recent announcement by Amonix of its $129 million Series B and Solaria’s $45 million funding.
The story of CPV has been one of perpetual promise, always just slightly over the horizon. Concentration was first proposed as a solution to the high cost of photovoltaics decades ago, but there has always been a chicken-and-egg problem. CPV works best with purpose-built solar cells, but CPV module volumes could not amortize the costs of volume manufacturing lines for these cells. In the 1990s, both Amonix and Sunpower developed purpose-built silicon concentrator cells, but volumes remained low, and CPV was not able to climb the experience curve. Meanwhile, numerous CPV companies came and went, while Sunpower exited CPV altogether.
Meanwhile, the space industry developed very-high-efficiency cells for spacecraft, where cost is secondary to mass as a product requirement. These exotic triple-junction cells are well matched to CPV, which can leverage their high efficiency while keeping costs in line with conventional technologies.

Spectrolab led the charge in terrestrial triple-junction cells, followed by Emcore, by Azur Space in Europe and then by a wave of startups and new entrants, including Cyrium in Canada and a number of Asian LED manufacturers. But these cell suppliers, and prospective investors, also had the chicken-and-egg problem – should they take the risk to ramp to volume with no clear volume customer identified?

Now, with Amonix and Solaria funded, and with companies like Soliant Energy and Skyline Solar targeting penetration of other market segments, the “chicken” is coming to roost. Somebody is going to be making a lot of CPV product, and they’re going to need a lot of solar cells.

CPV cell efficiencies are now exceeding 40 percent, and are expected to go to 50 percent or more within a decade, with little increase in cost. This extra efficiency means extra power production from the same hardware, which means higher margins flowing directly to the bottom line of CPV cell manufacturers and module makers. This, coupled with rapidly dropping costs as CPV moves up the experience curve, bodes well for this technology in the next few years.

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