The most abundant renewable energy source in the world is the sun, yet this is a resource whose potential has barely been tapped. Today this is changing, with new technologies beginning to gain momentum in the market. With a worldwide goal of 15% of energy supplied by the sun by 2020, it will take many solar technologies to achieve this goal and provide clean, renewable and affordable energy. The bottom line – all solar is good. The key is putting the right technology to work in the right place to achieve the greatest energy output at the best value.

CPV is the optimum technology providing:

• High energy output in high solar resource regions
• High energy density to optimize output from a given area of land
• High output during peak load demand
• Scalability of sites from kilowatts to megawatts

Download CPV Primer to learn more on CPV and other solar technologies.

Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems convert light energy into electricity in the same way conventional PV technology does.  The difference lies in the addition of an optical system that focuses a large area of sunlight onto each cell for providing reduced energy costs and improved manufacturability and reliability.

Optical System: CPV technology utilizes an optical element to collect the sun's light, and concentrate it at between 250-1000 suns (times) onto high efficiency solar cells which are 1 square centimeter in size. The basic concept is to replace expensive solar cell material with optical elements created from less expensive, readily available materials such as glass. In the example to the left SolFocus uses a primary mirror to collect the sunlight, focuses it on a secondary mirror, and then down the optical rod onto the high efficiency III-V cell.

High Efficiency Cells:  The cells used in CPV systems are over twice the efficiency of traditional silicon-based PV cells, approaching 40% compared with 15% - 19% for traditional silicon.  The use of these cells provide much  higher energy yield with less photovoltaic material.

Tracking System:  CPV systems must stay in line with the sun in order to provide the concentrating benefit. Because concentrator optics are in essence telescopes, they only see a small proportion of the sky. The higher the concentration level, the narrower this angle. As a result, concentrators above 3X need to track the sun on either one or two axis.

The CPV Consortium is a global industry group with the charter of supporting the development and optimizing the long-term success of CPV as a mainstream source of energy. SolFocus is a founding member of the organization having led its development beginning in 2007.

For more information about membership opportunities, upcoming events and news, please visit the CPV Consortium web site at: http://www.cpvconsortium.org/.