Renewable Power News » Concentrated Solar Power

The Future of Solar Energy – Solar Cells Integrated Into Typical Windows -

Jake Eriksson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 01:01:28 +0000

Sporadic complaints concerning solar panels are that they are not necessarily attractive. However, this may be about to change. Researchers created an innovative new transparent solar cell; this means that windows can have the capacity of producing electricity while they are allowing people to see through it.

This interesting development is described by the Los Angeles team in the University of California as a new type of PSC (PCP stands for Polymer Solar Cell) that is 70% transparent to the human eye and produces energy by absorbing mostly infrared light; they made this device recurring to a photo-active plastic capable of transforming infrared light into electrical energy.

UCLA professor of materials science and engineering and study leader, Yang Yang said that this development would open the potential visibility of transparent PSC used on smart-windows, portable electronics, and building-integrated photovoltaic among other applications. According to Yang, international interest is increasing in this PSC. Yang Yang said that their new PSCs can be produced in high quantities at a low cost, these polymer solar cells are made from plastic-like materials which make them more flexible and light weighted.

As a result of their advantages over other competitors’ solar cell technologies these PSCs are attracting greater attention. Scientists are investigating Polymer Solar Cells because of their potential in making unique advances for a wide range of applications; these applications would be possible by high-performance visibility transparent PV (Photovoltaic) devices; including integrated photovoltaic chargers for portable electronic equipment and building-integrated PV devices.

In the past many attempts to demonstrate visibility of transparent or semitransparent PSCs have been made; nevertheless, such demonstrations resulted in weak device efficiency or even low visible-light transparency, all this because the polymeric photovoltaic materials and efficient transparent conductors were not correctly installed in the device’s design and fabrication.

Using silver nanowire composite films and the incorporation of near-infrared light sensitive polymers, a team of UCLA researchers from the California NonSystems Institute, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science a the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have demonstrated a solution and high performance concerning transparent PSCs.

The near-infrared photoactive polymer is less sensitive to visible light. However, it absorbs more near-infrared light; corresponding solar cells transparency and performance in the visible wavelength region.

Another important advance is the replacement of the opaque metal electrode used in the past by a new transparent conductor made of a mixture of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and silver nanowire. This new electrode will allow solar cells to be produced economically by solution processing.

Four percent power-conversion efficiency for solution –processed and visibility transparent PSCs has been accomplished with such a combination.

Chairman in NanoSystems Sciences, Fred Kavli and CNSI director, Paul S. Weiss said that they are very enthusiastic because of this new development of transparent solar cells, which was applied to their recent advances in transparent conducting windows (published in ACS Nano) to fabricate such devices.

Source: Daily Mail, Engadget and Solar Power Facts

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Can Space Beams Bring Green Solar Energy To Earth?

Jake Eriksson — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 16:37:15 +0000

The efficiency of solar panels has always been an issue. However, this might be about to change. The recent test carried out on solar satellites shows that it might actually be possible to transmit beams of energy from space to power cities on earth.

Microwaves or laser beams could be used to send energy beams from floating solar panels in space. The initial objective is to provide energy to disaster areas or regions, which do not have access to energy. It has also been suggested that swarm of small satellites could provide enough energy to power cities.

On our planet, solar power has evolved slowly due to it initially high price and rather inefficient energy conversion rate. Some researchers from Stratchclyde University have evaluated equipment in space, on the possibility to collect solar energy from panels in space and then transfer this power to earth via lasers or microwaves.

The group of researchers suggests that one day a swarm of solar panel satellites could provide enough energy to power cities.

Of-course, the tiny satellites wouldn’t be a substitute for ordinary power sources for the grid. This is at least the case for the near future. They would as a first-phase act as a source of energy to disaster or outlay regions.

The research at Strathclyde’s department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering is being led by Dr. Massimiliano Vasile.

There would need to be a ‘receiver tool’ on earth being able to collect the laser or microwave, and convert it into usable electricity.

There have been several discussions of space solar energy, and new studies confirm that at least small-scale solar space energy collection is feasible.

According to Dr. Massimilano Vasile, it is possible to collect solar power regardless of the weather and time – as in space, solar energy is provided during daytime and nighttime.

For instance, in the Sahara Desert, solar power can easily be captured. However, the bottleneck is, how to transport this energy to the region where it is really needed.

This research on space solar energy is emphazing on removing this hurdles and making it easy to target power to specific locations. The solution is found in using lasers or microwaves to transport energy to earth.

In other words, this is finally a constant source of renewable energy without the obstacle of intermittence and transportability. There wouldn’t even be a need to store energy as the energy from space solar can be generated without any night interruption.

The technology available today, small satellites, could generate sufficient energy to power small villages. However, the aim is to establish large satellites structure, which will be able to collect enough green space solar energy to power large cities, such as London, Tokyo, New York and Singapore.

The group of engineering and science students from Strathclyde University, did last month execute a ‘space web’ experiment, where a rocket was sent to the Arctic Circle, at the border of space. There was also a network of satellites deployed to collect the beam ones sent back to our planet.

The ‘space web’ experiment is called Suaineadh, and does definitely provide significant insight on how to bring solar power projects to the next stage.

The Suaineadh experiment is part of the SAM (Self-inflating Adaptable Membrane) project. The next step is to further place reflectors to harness the solar power. The current structures of the solar satellites are made of self-inflating vacuum, which is able to alter the volume collected through nano-pumps.

The SAM project is part of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) study, which is being led by Dr. John Mankins from the Artemis Innovation. From the European side, the University of Strathclyde forms part of the international consortium with American Researchers but led by Professor Nobuyuki Kaya from the University of Kobe, a Japanese professor who is currently the world leader when it comes to wireless power transmission.

Currently, the NIAC study is proving and evaluating the best potential conceptual design to build a large scale solar power satellite. The research team at University of Strathclyde is focusing on the structural element of how to establish orbit control of the satellites.

Source: NIAC, NASA and Dailymail

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Solar Tower of 165 Metres Finished

Jake Eriksson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:49:17 +0000

The solar thermal energy plant, Crescent Dunes, is a step nearer to generating clean power from the Nevada desert sun. The company has indeed made the announcement that its 165 metres receiver tower was already completed.

In accordance to SolarReserve, Crescent Dunes power plant will surely become the country’s primary commercial-scale solar energy facility that would have completely integrated the storage of molten salt energy. Crescent Dunes has a capacity of 110 MW. Such an amount of power is sufficient to supply electricity equal to 75000 houses. The latter will moreover be the biggest solar energy plant of this type in the whole world.

Systems put in place for the storage of molten salt permit solar farms to produce energy overnight through the storage of heat that is collected throughout the day in tanks that contain a specific kind of salt. The gathered heat is subsequently used for the production of steam which in turn drives the turbines.

As stated by SolarReserve, this technology of molten salt that has been developed by the United States and currently being used by Crescent Dunes has the capability to store power for approximately ten to fifteen hours; thus resolving the problem of intermittent energy production to the grid.

ACS Cobra, a solar energy developer and SolarReserve jointly own Crescent Dunes. Sponsorship by the United States’ Department of Energy’s credit guarantee scheme as well as the investment money obtained from the banking firm Santander along with a twenty year energy purchase agreement concluded with NV Energy guaranteed the project’s progress.

The construction of this massive power tower started in last September. A solar receiver will be placed on the top of the tower for the collection of heat that is reflected by a great number of heliostat arrays found all through the desert floor.

Crescent Dunes is being hailed as a revolution as far as it concerns Nevadan employment. It will bring about six hundred employments anticipated in site through the construction period of thirty months.

It is estimated that 4300 jobs; induced, indirect and direct, will be created in companies right through the United States, those that are in engineering, manufacturing, equipment supply, transportation as well as other varied value-adding services.

SolarReserve stated that at the moment it becomes operational, the project will spent above ten million US dollar yearly in terms of operating costs and salaries. It is even forecasted that it will generate forty seven million US dollar in terms of total tax income during the initial ten years of business.

There are other plants which are currently making use of the storage of molten salt energy. However, none is as big as Crescent Dunes will become. The Gemasolar project is very first completely operational solar farm, used on a commercial scale, in the world to offer baseload energy on a 24 hour basis.

Source: Energy Matters

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Flowserve Pump Selected For Nevada Solar Power Plant

Jake Eriksson — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:22:55 +0000

Currently, Flowserve Corp has been selected to provide key pumping systems required for the Solar Energy Project which is being constructed closed to Tonopah in Nevada. USA.

It is concentrated solar power (CSP) plant of 110 MW, which is being constructed. Crescent Dunes Solar Energy project uses a power tower with molten salts, which will be used to generate energy. Flowserve molten salt pumps will be working on an extreme temperature of 5°C. It is the key system in the CSP plant.

The Flowserve pump will play a fundamental role in maximizing the efficiency of the system by providing variable frequency of fluid via the pump.

The Solar Energy Project is constructed by Nevada-based Cobra Thermosolar Plants Inc. It is the same company which is currently owning and running Tonopah Solar Energy LLC. They expect to have the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy project operational by 2013, with a capacity of 500,000 MW hours per year.

The Chief operating officer of Flowserve, Tom Pajonas says that their strong relationship with Cobra in Spain was the key factor enabling them to win this order. It will also help the company to be considered as a one-stop shop for pumping needs for the project over the full lifetime. This includes services such as lifetime maintenance.

Source: World Pumps

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Renewable Energy Outlook For Asia Pacific 2012

Jake Eriksson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:51:04 +0000

For Asia Pacific, the top six predictions for 2012 are:

1. Conventional Power Generation & T&D Infrastructure Development will be the strongest and largest source of revenue for power equipment industry.

2. There will be a 20 % growth in the renewable energy markets in 2012, in terms of total investments.

3. There will be a 10 percent increase in capital expenditure on Oil & Gas for refining capacity in 2012

4. Government support will assure 13.7 percent growth in the energy markets.

5. Large companies will continue to find mergers for smart grid solutions, but utilities will only slowly adopt smart grid technologies in Asia Pacific.

6. Some major policies emerging from the Durban Climate Change Talks

According to Frost & Sullivan report, in Asia Pacific the strongest driver for renewable energy will be; Energy Security & fuel Diversity; Emphasis on Smart Energy; Growth in Energy Demand and Investment in new Infrastructure. These 4 drivers are going to support a 20 percent growth in renewable energy in the Asia Pacific markets in 2012.

Yet, there are some key restraints such as; economic uncertainty; project cost & currency fluctuation and delayed market liberalization, which is going to act as challenges for a constant growth. Efficient government support will, however, help to tackle a high degree of the restraints.

Source: Frost & Sullivan (Slide 5)

For the field of solar energy, China will act as powerful global manufacture of solar-energy solutions. She will also be one of the fastest growing solar markets in Asia, particularly for on-grid Solar PV. Other markets such as Malaysia have had Panasonic and Bosch investing heavily in PV manufacturing plants. Yet, Thailand is expected to have a weak progress in the solar market due to floods.

In Japan feed-in tariff is will help solar PV to be sustained, and experience a favorable growth. In other countries such as Australia, government policies such as imposition of ‘Carbon Tax’ will support the solar market to grow.

Forecast for Solar PV Installed Capacity in 2012

- Total Capacity installed 5,330 MW
- Market growth of 38.6 percent
- Japan represent 2,600 MW
- China Representing 1,360 MW
- India Representing 450 MW
- Australia representing 450 MW
- Korea representing 150 MW

In 2012, Asia Pacific will remain the world’s fastest growing market, in relation to its new installed capacity followed by North America and thereafter Europe. Besides, in Asia Pacific, china will be the largest consumer of renewable energy due to its strong demand of power. In the China, there will be drive to go towards offshore wind power.

Forecast for Solar PV Installed Capacity in 2012

- Total World Capacity Installed 21, 257 MW
- A Capacity growth of 26.7 percent
- China representing 15,000 MW

Nevertheless, coal fired power plants will maintain the strongest capacity creation. But, the emphasis will be on ultra supercritical boilers and other systems where pollution can be controlled and minimized. In countries like India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mongolia there will be an attractive demand for coal power in 2012. In overall, conventional power can expect an anticipated investment of $130 to $140 billion which represents a growth of 4 to 5 percent, but as mentioned the focus will be on clean coal fired generation plants.

In the expansion of smart grids, companies such as Schneider, CISCO and Toshiba will start to invest more attention. They will foster strategic international partnership to deploy new smart grid technology into countries. The expected investment is US$ 10 billion, which represent a growth of 60 to 70 percent, since 2011. The key markets for smart grid in Asia Pacific will be China, Australia, Korea and Thailand. There are currently smart grid projects which are reaching its completion stage in Korea and Australia.

Source: Frost & Sullivan (Slide 15)

Source: Frost & Sullivan

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New Design of Wind Farm Can Yield Efficiency; Reinvent Traditional Wind Farms

Jake Eriksson — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:30:14 +0000

Typical wisdom says that we have already reached the maximum efficiency per wind turbine. However, this restriction on wind energy efficiency might be based on the use of mature technology without re-invention. The California Institute of Technology research has re-invented some of the basic assumption that underlines the wind industry. They believe it is time to change the 30 years old designed used in conventional wind farms. A new concept where wind turbines can be constructed closer (more compact) would significantly increase the energy efficiency of a farm per its footprint.

Their concept over-rides previous assumption that the only way to increase efficiency of wind turbines is to go offshore and to build larger turbines.

John Dabiri, a professor of Engineering & applied Science as well as the director of the Center of bioinspired Engineering at Caltech, says that wind farms are not really that efficient. The conventional wind turbines occupy a large footprint, and much of the wind is untapped. The modern wind turbines are larger and taller, meaning that they do catch higher winds.

Nevertheless, the increase in size and height of wind turbines, leads to higher cost in terms of construction, engineering, maintenance and other environmental and landscaping costs.

In the Journal of Renewables & Sustainable Energy issued by the American Institute of Physics’ Dabiri gives a description on how to improve the efficiency of wind farm designs.

It is certain that the wind that can be harnessed at 30 feet is extremely much more efficient and constant than near the ground winds. Yet, if the low-winds were captured in an efficient way, then it would be no need to go for the higher altitude winds. Research has shown that capturing the wind that exceeds 30 feet can power several times the whole world energy demand.

The use of vertical-axis wind-turbines (VAWTs) settings proposed by Caltech will make it possible to establish wind turbines close to each other. This would avoid the drawback of large spacing between the horizontal-axis propeller-wind turbines.

Dabiri says that VAWT generate a series of benefits. The design is highly efficient and provides a low-cost way to capture near ground winds. In addition, it would decrease the level of negative environmental consequences generated by wind turbines such as damaging landscape views.

However, VAWT structures used today are less efficient and are commonly at risk of structural failures. However, improvement in materials used and aerodynamic loads can prevent these fatigue failures associated with VAWT.

According to recent studies, VAWT turbines are evolving in the right direction, and a pilot study suggests that off-the-shelf wind turbines are becoming more efficient.

The aim of the research is to find ways to make wind energy even more efficient. Dabiri says that the use of smaller power generation approaches to harnessed wind energy will be significantly cheaper as less expensive material will be used.

Soon a re-invented approach of harnessing wind energy might be used.

Source: Science Daily

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Clean Energy –The Largest Solar Farm in UK successfully strike Cash-back scheme

Jake Eriksson — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:50:56 +0000

Tine mine is UK’s largest-scale solar power plant to derive governmental benefits from the so called ‘clean energy cash-back’ scheme.

This upcoming solar farm is expected to produce 1.4 MW of electricity per annum, which will render it the largest solar farm in the UK. This new solar farm is the result of a joint venture between Solar Century (solar panel suppliers) and Light Source Renewable energy. In total the farm will be spread across 2.9 hectare in Wheal Jane, which is closed to Truro. There will be a total of 5,700 modules, which will release a capacity of 1.437 MWh. In other words, this will be sufficient to provide electricity to 430 households, and reduce CO2 emissions by 737 tonnes per annum.

In the UK, this is one of the very few projects that is being provided with ‘Feed-in-tariff’ rates, which are popularly called ‘clean energy cash back’. The programme established by the government was meant to motivate the installation of solar panels, and rewarding business that promotes the use of renewable. The companies generating electricity from solar are, in other words, paid a preferential rate above the prevailing energy rates. The common hinder for solar energy to take off is that fossil-fuel power is cheaper in comparison to solar energy; solar cells are relatively more expensive.

It was announced in February that the government was going to revise its feed-in tariff scheme for companies producing above 50 Kw. The aim was to reduce the incentive of the feed-in tariff for large solar installation by as much as 70 percent. So, large solar farms that joins the grid after the end of this month will be faced with severely lower rates.

Conor McGuigan who is the head of planning for Lightsource says that it is disappointing to see the government reducing the availability of feed-in-tariff for large solar manufactures. They do play a fundamental role in the overall supply of clean energy in the United Kingdom.

In addition, Wheal Jane is also a domestic tin mine site that house the country’s prime earth science park of clean energy with hydro, wind, solar and geothermal sources.
The CEO of SolarCentury, Derry Newman says that the movement towards solar energy in tine mine shows how energy productions are changing.

According to recent news, the progress of clean energy is spreading across the country. Another extensive-array of solar cells is being set up in Howbery Business Park situated at Oxforshire. It will consist of an array of 3,000 solar cells, which will produce around 682 MWh of energy per annum.

Source: Wired.Co

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China Is Going Green, In The Next Five Year

Jake Eriksson — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:13:45 +0000

On March 5, Premier Wen Jiabao has put more efforts in saving energy and cleaning the air as China, the top producer of greenhouse gases worldwide, refurbishes its economy over the coming five years.

At the opening of the annual session of China’s Parliament (National People’s Congress), Wen stated in his speech that there will be more active participation in the prevention of global warming.

The country aims to reduce 17% of carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product between the years 2011 to 2015 — a step to achieve its goal to bring down carbon concentration for at least 40% by 2020, in comparison to levels in 2005.

The premier asserted that by 2015, energy use per unit of GDP will be cut by 16%, and expects to raise last year’s 8.3% of non-fossil fuels in its energy infusion to 11.4%.

Between the years 2006-2010, Wen stated that China had achieved reasonable developments in terms of energy conservation, environmental protection and ecological improvement, and likewise had taken firm measures in the implementation of green technology.

China’s past five years revealed a decrease of 19.1% of energy consumption per unit of GDP, which almost reached the initial goal of 20%, according to China’s premier.

This year, as reported separately by National Development and Reform Commission, the leading economic planning agency is suggesting positive news. China’s target is to decrease at least 3.5% of both carbon concentration and energy consumption per unit of GDP in comparison to last year’s.

The country has taken on a bold step in increasing the use of renewable resources like solar and wind power. It intends to make more use of its nuclear power as well. At present, China utilizes two-thirds of its power requirements from highly contaminating coal energy resource.

Source: Physorg

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Green Living in Vauban; Germany’s Eco-village

Jake Eriksson — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:41:57 +0000

Eco-friendly products have successful hit the marketplace in the west. Organic food and green products have been expanding with two digit figures for the past 15 years, excluding 2009. In addition, automakers are providing new auto-solutions. Fully electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles are stepping onto the road.

This is good news for our plant. The reduction in consumption of dirty products for greener ones is addressing the challenge of global warming as well as waning pollution. One of the most effective eco-oriented changes has been the introduction of reusable shopping bags. The most interesting part is that our reusable shopping bags are filled with ‘environmentally friendly products’.

An increasing number of environmentally conscious shoppers is leveraging green consumerism. Nevertheless, capitalism is making some minor adjustments, but they are still depleting natural resources and overwhelming the earth with waste, mass production and pollution.

The private corporate devils have adopted eco-friendly solutions but to a limit. They agree with the fact that green goods are an emerging market opportunity. However, the leaders of these large corporations are unwilling to embrace conservation to its full sense. Currently, consumers are faced with two options to maintain a higher standard of living: Either to resort to consuming less or to continue with consumption of environmentally unsound products.

It is certain that capitalism can foster innovation. However, capitalism isn’t willing to engage on an environmentally and ecological sane solution if there isn’t enough profit to be made.

South-West German Exemplifies greenness

In the south-west of Germany, we have one of the greenest cities on earth; Freilburg. There are two eco-villages in Freilburg, Reiselfeld and Vauban. The cities have been around for a dozen years with a well-established community. Nowadays, approximately 15,000 inhabitants of diverse income groups live in the region.
Vauban Changed into An Eco-friendly Village

In 1995, the Forum Vauban was formed. The group took the social initiative to go energy-efficient. It was then that the Vauban community started transcending towards greenness. The German Federal Foundation for Environment provided a sizeable grant to support the environmental conservation efforts. The group became increasingly more formal and wider public gathering was formed to exchange ideas.

The final product was a 400-page document with lucrative energy-and-environmentally sound proposals. This included ideas such as resource-efficient apartment, photovoltaic arrays, a cogeneration power plant, as well as a cogeneration unit for individual buildings.

Another initiative by the group was to reduce the presence of automobiles, supporting child-friendly pedestrian zone. Forum Vauban suggested banning parking in residential streets to avoid excessive use of cars. This would alter the habit of people. Currently, in Vauban less than the national average owns a car.

In Vauban people have been engaged in social planning, sharing ideas and concept to make its community a better place. Interestingly this has been achieved by self-organization of people. In other words, instead of complaining about the current state, people are doing something to make things happen.

Another concept for housing is to be resources efficient. For instance, single-family homes do waste both resources and space. The most convenient solution is to construct highly dense residential housing. For ancient buildings, renovation and retrofitting are essential. In the region, advanced passivhaus are used. These housing facilities (architecture) use on average only 15 percent of the energy in comparison to conventional German housing facilities; on average 20-KWh is used per square foot while the passivhaus architecture brings this down to only 1.3 KWh.

The Passivhaus architecture has this ‘passive’ ability to retain heat or coolness for winter and summer respectively. This reduces heavy cost used to for heating or air conditioning. A characteristic of the passivhaus design is that buildings have well-insulated windows, doors and walls. On average passivhaus cost 7 percent more than contemporary buildings.

In German there has since long been increasing pressure for alternative sources of energy. In 2008 around 14 percent of the country’s electricity supply came from renewable energy. The government is expecting to heighten this representation to 25 to 30 percent by 2020.

The Equal Power Policy

According to a founding member of Forum Vauban, Jörg Lange, who is a trained biologist is now concentrating his attention on the 2,000-Watt Society. It is a programmed promoted by a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The concept focuses on distributing an equal amount of energy to people.

It has been estimated by Swiss scientists that the earth can only accommodate an additional of six billion inhabitants if consumption per person is kept at 2,000 watts: 500 for transport, 500 for home consumption and 1,000 to grow food construct buildings and manufacturing. In Germany the consumption per person is around 4,000 Watts while in America it is twice that figure (8,000 watts per person).

Solving the trouble of global warming merely with alternative sources of energy is a misleading prophecy. Lange says that ‘You also have to cut how much we use.’

The idea of reducing consumption is opposed by politicians around the world. If economies start to consume less there will be gigantically transformations. Enhancement in technology is likely going to be the ultimate solution to decrease energy consumption in a smooth way.

According to the 2,000-Watt Society, people should be granted an equal amount of energy.

Source: Red Pepper, Heather Rogers

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JDSU Launching Concentrated Photovoltaic Technology to Harness Solar Energy

Jake Eriksson — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 01:52:48 +0000

New CVP Cell has been created to capture solar energy at a higher efficiency. JDSU recently announced the release of a new concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) cells with the potential to further harness sunlight within solar panels.

The organisation is currently cooperating with large solar system integrators. They are aiming at installing CPV cells in solar module installation at a global agenda.

Here is clip from JDSU, demonstrating their approach of harnessing solar energy:

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Solar concentrated Photovoltaics is a highly efficient technology helping to boost up the productivity of solar power generation. The CPV Industry Report 2010 suggests that CPV system installation will expand with $70 million in America and is expected to exceed $3 billion by 2015. Currently, the CPV market is mainly used by power plants at shopping centers, college campuses and industrial buildings generating between 500 kilowatts to 10 megawatts. The residential roof-top housing market installation generates only 5 KW for each household.

Alan Lowe, president of Communication and Commercial Optical Production at JDSU says that the demand for electricity will rise constantly over the coming years, and there will be a need for affordable and sustainable energy. The technology proposed by JDSU supports this expansion in energy demand.

Greg Sheppard, chief research officer at an analyst firm known as iSuppli says that CPV technology has already shown its efficiency and now larger projects are being launched. In 2011, CPV installations will account for around 100 MW, and it is expected to reach 1 GW by 2015. This particular technology will have a competitive advantage over conventional solar technology, especially in sunny areas like deserts.

Competitive Advantage of JDSU CPV Cells

The JDSU CPV cells are designed to collect the sun’s spectrum in various junctions, enabling a conversion efficiency of nearly 40 percent. It is thus a very competitive system for solar system integrators. The main purpose of the CPV cells is to collect concentrated sunlight at an amplified power of 500 to 1000 times its normal energy volume. There is a multiple of advantages that are derived from the technology such as cost efficiency as cost per KW generated is lower than typical photovoltaic technologies and fewer semiconductor materials used are as well..

JDSU has for several years been concentrating on creating performing solar power technology for the satellite industry. It is only recently that JDSU introduced the CPV technology for land installation. The company does also provide other associated products to solar energy such as digital monitoring technology for smart grids.

Source: World of Renewables and JDSU

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