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SolFocus installs first solar array for 3MW Spanish CPV project
Semiconductor Today, February 5, 2008
Excerpts from the article:
SolFocus Inc of Mountain View, CA, USA, a Palo Alto Research Center spin-off that manufactures III-V-based concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, has installed the first CPV array in the 3MW pilot-plant project in Puertollano, Castilla-La Mancha co-ordinated by Spain’s Instituto de Sistemas Fotovoltaicos de Concentración S.A. (ISFOC). The project also represents the first commercial deployment of SolFocus’ systems...
SolFocus’ ISFOC program is being overseen by subsidiary SolFocus Europe Inc of Madrid, Spain, which was founded last September with $27.4m (€20m) of Series A venture capital funding and is handling business development, marketing, engineering, and R&D activities, as well as continuing collaborative work with IES. Also, after SolFocus acquired Madrid-based solar tracker provider Inspira S.L. last August, SolFocus Europe is home to the firm’s tracker and solar thermal product development activities (while SolFocus Inc in Mountain View focuses on panel, optics, and solar cell technologies).
SolFocus broke ground at Puertollano last October for a 200kW installation (the first of the 500kW to be installed over the next few months). Each SolFocus array is rated at 6.2kW, and performance has already exceeded the design output (significant at this early stage of this project, the firm claims).
SolFocus says that its installation of the first power-producing system is a milestone in achieving the objectives of the project. The installation brings the industry one step closer towards commercial deployment of CPV technologies, adds ISFOC director general Dr Pedro Banda. “SolFocus’ first installation marks the official launch of the power-generation phase of the program.”
SolFocus (which already has over 40kW of test arrays installed at various sites) says that it selected ISFOC for its first large-scale installation because of the project founders’ vision for CPVs and their plans to address the key challenges of commercializing the technology.
“We share the belief with the ISFOC leadership that CPV is the disruptive technology that will have a major impact in moving solar energy toward a more cost-effective and scalable mainstream energy source,” says Pedro Ladrón de Guevara, VP and general manager of SolFocus’ Tracker Division. “The focus of the ISFOC on addressing the most important components of CPV, including performance, energy production, safety and reliability, is directly in line with SolFocus’ goals this year, as the company moves into full-scale commercial deployment in late 2008.”
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