CPV I GRID OPTIONS
CPV: on-grid or off-grid?
Richard Sammut, Business Development Manager at Circadian Solar discusses global opportunities for CPV and seeks to provide some perceptive logic to the discussion of where CPV fits into the overall market potential.
C
oncentrated photovoltaics (CPV) holds much potential for unlocking clean energy in countries that are ‘sun rich’. This essentially applies to the area either side of the equator, the so-called ‘Sunbelt’, that has long hours of reliable, intense, direct sunlight. However, even in these areas where CPV offers key performance and commercial advantages, there is much debate over how CPV will achieve market acceptance and become a prime energy source for the Sunbelt.
One of the key questions boils down to whether CPV can address both the on-grid and off-grid electricity markets. Given the huge differences in requirements between on and off-grid electricity, there is a challenge for CPV suppliers to prove the technology’s credibility and to gain deployments. How and where will CPV gain early market traction? What are the “killer apps” that CPV can exploit?
CPV and on-grid electricity Put simply CPV is a strong technology for both a useful off-grid power supply and for the backbone of grid electricity provision in the Sunbelt. However, for on-grid markets the market drivers are far more straightforward than off-grid markets. For off-grid deployments there is often a strong motivation for reducing the carbon footprint of power supplies, and reducing emissions. However, for grid-connected markets for any new technology to be considered it must be cost competitive with current energy sources.
However, it is important not to forget that CPV is still at a very early stage of development. The simple fact is that currently, given the levels of real world CPV deployments the industry is not yet benefitting from the advantages of economies of scale necessary to compete with grid electricity. This is a crucial factor,
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www.solar-pv-management.com I Issue IX 2011
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