industry CPV
CPV is providing power to the City Coachella Water Treatment Facility in Coachella,
CA.This allows the city to purchase less power,particularly during the high-value post noon hours,including into the early evening peak period
increase over the next few years will restrict the success of start-ups. “Of those 15-20 start-ups, there will be two or three winners,” says Hartsoch, who believes that those that succeed will be those that can win investment, scale up capacity and partner with CPV firms to secure initial business.
“It’s an exciting part of the business, with no other technology can you be so flexible at adopting an
The synergy of Soitec and Concentrix
The French firm Soitec is renowned for its Smart Cut technology that enables the separation of incredibly thin, single-crystal layers from a substrate, which can be used over and over again. This technology promises to deliver major benefits to triple-junction solar cell production, which is the reason behind Soitec’s acquisition of Concentrix in late 2009.
One advantage of the Smart Cut approach is that it increases the freedom of choice for the materials in the cell, because these layers do not have to be lattice-matched to one another. The upshot is that compositions can be optimised for spectral absorption and current output, enabling a higher efficiency for the device. It is also possible to use materials with greater purity, which have been formed in ingots rather than epi-chambers.
Soitec is developing its novel technology for triple-junction cells in collaboration with: CEA-Leti, Grenoble, which is focusing on Smart Cut technology; and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany, which is concentrating on epitaxy and cell manufacturing. Cell production is scheduled to begin in 2014 or 2015. The cells will only be used internally, and Soitec is yet to decide whether these devices will be produced in-house or with an external partner.
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net August / September 2011
advancement as you can with CPV systems.” Lerchenmüller believes that cell producers can gain the edge over their rivals by adopting the mindset of companies operating in the silicon industry. “You have to provide a better product next year at a lower cost – full stop.” If companies of any size can take on this attitude and execute of this front, they will stand a far better chance of qualifying product with Soitec.
Meanwhile, SolFocus’ bugbear with cell suppliers has been a lack of commercial processes such as outgoing test, but these chipmakers are making progress in this direction. “Historically, because they were cells used in space, 100 percent incoming inspection was standard,” explains Hartsoch. One way that some cell start-ups are trying to stand out from the crowd is by developing triple-junction devices with novel architectures that offer spectral tuning.
Lerchenmüller believes that this is an important feature, but does not see a big advantage at site-specific tuning at present, because there is a high degree of similarity in the spectral profile of sunlight at many of the sites where CPV will be deployed over the next few years: “A typical site for large installations is California, in areas that are elevated, but not too highly elevate.” He adds that most sites with a high value of direct normal irradiance have a similar spectrum, and says that a choice of cells is only needed once the market has grown substantially to several GWs or more. “We believe that the CPV market, by 2015, can be as high as 1.8 GW.” If he’s right, the ramp in CPV deployments during the next few years is going to be breathtakingly fast.
© 2011 Angel Business Communications. Permission required.
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