Concentrated Photovoltaics
Eelco Bergman, VP of Business Development, Cyrium Technologies Inc.
As a result of the significant manufacturing overcapacity in the industry, PV pricing has dropped dramatically over the past six to 12 months. The current pricing environment has put intense pressure on all PV systems suppliers to find ways to aggressively drive out cost in their existing manufacturing supply chains and develop novel solutions that will enable further, and more revolutionary, reductions in the LCOE (levelized cost of energy – annualized cost/kwh) of their systems. One approach that is seeing increased adoption is the use of concentration (low, medium and high) both for standard crystalline silicon as well as III-V multi-junction solar cells. The use of concentration provides system manufacturers the ability to extract more power out of their cells, which represent a significant portion of their cost.
Yossi Fisher, Solaris Synergy
Solaris Synergy has scaled up its floating concentrated photovoltaic system from a single module to a multi-module floating platform. Within the framework of this project, a pre-commercial 48-module system with an output power of 15 kWp was designed and successfully implemented in field conditions. The company is currently working toward the manufacture and assembly of a demonstration pilot of 200 kW that will be connected to the electric grid.
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Eelco Bergman, VP of Business Development; Cyrium Technologies Inc.
Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) provides a clear path for the continued cost reduction of solar power generation. The use of concentration enables the manufacturers of solar power plants to reduce the semiconductor content and cost of their systems while maintaining equal or higher power output. One of the key challenges that CPV system designers are faced with is the impact the heat – resulting from the concentration – will have on the performance of the photovoltaic cells.
Yossi Fisher, Solaris Synergy
Yuri Kokotov, Solaris Synergy
Elyakim Kassel, Solaris Synergy
Background
Solaris Synergy has developed a low-cost concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) concept designed to float on water surfaces, utilizing inexpensive, easy-to-manufacture platforms, based on a unique, patent pending cooling technology. The two key objectives in developing this system are: a) significant reduction of the installed cost of the system; and b) the utilization of “industrial” water surfaces in order to reduce the use of land resources, while simultaneously preserving water quantity and quality.
Biancamaria Maniscalco, Loughborough University
Introduction
Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems have the potential to meet the lowest cost for power generation. Sunlight is focused using inexpensive optics such as a Fresnel lens on to a small cell to produce high photocurrents. In low to medium concentration (50 to 200 suns), these cells are usually silicon. Laser-grooved buried contact (LGBC) technology is attractive for low-cost concentrators since the front contact can handle the high current densities produced.
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Eelco Bergman, VP of Business Development; Cyrium Technologies Inc.
Over the past several years, the PV industry has experienced record growth due to a combination of government incentives promoting investment in solar projects and aggressive cost reduction by manufacturers leveraging the increased production volumes. Unfortunately, as a result of the current macroeconomic climate, many of these investment incentives have ended or are on a schedule to do so. In addition, fierce price competition, resulting from an overcapacity situation in specifically the C-Si flat plate market, has driven cost expectations below sustainable levels for many manufacturers. Nevertheless, the demand for solar energy continues to be strong and particularly the interest in large, utility-scale projects is on the rise.
Senthil Ramadas, Tera-Barrier Films
Tera-Barrier Films’ (TBF) patented high-barrier film has the highest reported water vapor barrier performance to date, which will be a boon to plastic electronics whose sensitive functional materials are easily degraded by water vapor and oxygen, which include thin film solar cells, like CIGS, dye-sensitized solar cells and organic solar cells. These devices require ultra-high-barrier film coated plastic substrates with low water vapor transmission properties of <10-6g/m2 per day at 25°C and 90 percent relative humidity (RH). However, one of the major stumbling blocks for large-scale introduction of flexible solar cells is the lack of availability of commercial (large-volume) high-performance barrier films and encapsulation technologies at low cost. TBF/IMRE barrier films have demonstrated all the technical requirements with external validation reports with respect to barrier performance, flexibility, transparency with a technology roadmap that can deliver cost-effective solutions in line with flexible photovoltaics, displays and lighting application expectations.
Hansjörg Lerchenmüller, Concentrix Solar, now a division of Soitec
CPV technology is currently gaining momentum, with many recent large utility-scale solar plants announcements – especially due to the promising cost-saving potential of this technology achieved by the high efficiencies, currently in the 25 percent range. Soitec Concentrix is currently working on new generations of solar cells leading to a system efficiency of more than 35 percent to create a strong further boost of the CPV system performance.
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Brad Hines, Vice President of Engineering, Idealab
The idea of concentrating sunlight onto small solar cells, reducing expensive semiconductor material in order to reduce cost, is at least 40 years old. Nonetheless, the shifting and evolving technology landscape around concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems means that innovation continues today, and that, in fact, the dawn of economically viable CPV systems has come.
Brad Hines, Vice President of Engineering, Idealab
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.
