We're all familiar with standardphotovoltaic solar panels, and many of us are starting to becomefamiliar with solar thermal tech that uses the sun's heat to generatepower, but there's also a third option. Over a dozen startups areworking on ways to use mirrors and lenses to concentrate sunlighthundreds of times onto tiny highly-efficient solar cells. Calledconcentrating photovoltaic technology (CPV) the systems are meant tocut back on one of the most expensive parts of traditional PV: thesilicon-based solar panel.
CPV startups say the latest tech can provide solar systems at alower cost per watt but with as much or more power. There are highconcentrating systems and low concentrating systems, but most of thecompanies are trying overcome the expensive silicon shortage. Thoughmany companies are just starting to bring products to market, and thesystems seem to require a lot of moving parts, these 13 companies areworking out the details:
SolFocus:The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is only a little over 2 yearsold, but has been amassing significant funds from well-known Valleyfirms to deploy its CPV systems. The startup already raised $95 millionby New Enterprise Associates, Moser Baer India, David Gelbaum,Metasystem Group, NGEN Partners and Yellowstone Capital, and is reported to be looking to add between $60 million and $80 million in a Series C round.
The company also has a serious presence in Spain. It's sistercompany SolFocus Europe has offices in Madrid, Spain, and this week thecompany said it had completed the first 200 kW installation of a 3 MWconcentrating solar PV plant owned by Spain's Institute ofConcentration Photovoltaic Systems (ISFOC).
Cyrium Technologies: Cyrium makes the multi-junction solar cells for concentrating PV systems — these cells have to be . Just this weekthe company says it has closed a Series B round of $15 million infunding led by David Gelbaum's Quercus Trust, and including BDC VentureCapital, Chrysalix Energy VentureCapital, and Pangaea Ventures.
Solar Systems Tech: Founded in 1991 by John Lasich, the Hawthorne, Victoria, Australia-based company Solar Systemshas developed the "CS500 dish concentrator PV unit," which stands 14meters high, has 112 curved mirrors (each 1.2 square meters) and tracksthe sun on a mounted steel frame. The company only sells solar powerplants with a minimum of 8 dishes, and says the CS500 produces up to 30percent more electricity per installed watt and is cheaper perinstalled watt than traditional PV.
GreenVolts: GreenVoltsis a three-year-old San Francisco-based solar startup that sells asun-tracking concentrating PV system called the CarouSol that canconcentrate sun light by 625 times. GreenVolts says the system canproduce energy at less than half the cost of traditional PV.
In 2006 the company won the California Cleantech Open businesscompetition, and a year later raised a $10 million Series A round ledby Greenlight Energy Resources and included Avista and other investors.Earlier this month the company said it was looking to raise funding of "less than $100 million" later this year.
Concentrix Solar: The Freiburg, Germany-based companywas spun out of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in2005. The company sells concentrating PV plants called Flatcon, whichthe company says produce electricity 10 to 20 percent cheaper thanstandard PV.
For about 2 years the company has been operating a pilot productionline and by the end of the summer plans to have started up another 25MW production line. Concentrix is backed by Good Energies and AbengoaSolar and has a joint venture with Abengoa, called Concentrix Iberia,for the Spanish markets.
Silicon Valley Solar:The two year old company was founded by Patrick Callinan and backed bya $10.2 million Series A round from Bessemer Venture Partners. Thecompany's Sol-X concentrator is a flat plate internal concentrator,which is low cost and delivers 2 times concentration and reducessilicon by 50 percent. The system also doesn't rely on a trackingsystem, so there are less moving parts (something that can add to thecost and complexity of the system).
Energy Innovations:"EI" is a startup that makes a variety of solar photovoltaic products,including the Sunflower, which the company claims is "the world's firsthigh-concentration PV system for both commercial rooftop andground-mounted applications." Energy Innovations is backed by BillGross (dotcom entrepreneur turned cleantech investor) and his Idealabincubator, as well as Mohr Davidow.
Soliant Energy:Soliant's rooftop concentrating solar panels are the same dimension andweight as convention PV panels, so are much easier to install than manyof the other CPV systems out there. The systems use triple junctioncells that can deliver 40 percent efficiency, and the lensesconcentrate the sunlight by 500 times.
Amonix:The Torrance, Calif.-based Amonix is almost 2 decades old, which hasgiven them a chance to go through 6 generations of improvements ontheir high concentration PV systems. The lenses concentrate thesunlight over 500 times and the company says it manufactures its highefficiency solar cells "at existing microelectronic chip manufacturingfoundries," which can deliver significant cost savings.
Green & Gold Energy:This Australian startup was formed in 2005 with $250K in seed fundingfrom the founder. The company has now grown large enough to havecommitted 400 MW per year of its SunCube concentrating solar PVsystems. The company only officially launched its SunCube technology inFebruary of this year but says it intends to 1 GW of SunCubemanufacturing facilities around the world. G&GE also claims it has"placed the largest CPV industry order to date for 105 MWs of Emcore'sworld leading 1,000 sun concentrator cells."
Pyron solar: We first heard about Pyron Solarwhen the company raised a Series A financing from New Energies Investfor its concentrating solar PV systems. The company, which isheadquartered in San Diego, Calif., has a working 6.6 kW prototype ofits unusual solar system that floats in water, which helps to cool thesystem and can prevent it from damage. The solar setup uses three15-meter-in-diameter arrays on a 2-axis tracker and multi-junction PVcells from Spectrolab.
Sol3g: Like SolFocus solar concentrating PV system maker Sol3gis building out a part of the 3 MW solar system that belongs toInstitute of Concentration Photovoltaic Systems in Castilla La Mancha.Founded in 2004 company is based in Cerdanyola, Spain and says thesurface of solar cells are 400 times smaller than that of a traditionalPV system, "with the consequent cost saving."
Cool Earth Solar: You might have seen pictures of this one across the web;the solar system that looks like a oversized foil baloon. Cool EarthSolar's makes inflated mirror concentrators with one half reflectivemylar and the other, clear film. Inside the bubble is a high-efficiencyPV receiver. The system is supposed to be designed to be lightweightand easy enough to string up but rugged enough to withstand 100 mphwinds. In February the company said it had raised $21 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment