Concentrated PV is blooming
If in the past few years concentrated PV was having a slow progress, now CPV is advancing towards a momentum and installations and it will grow an important percentage every year through 2020, as the latest IHS report shows.
The concentrated photovoltaic global market is on the edge of a massive explosion and s international installations are arranged to catapult 750% between 2013 and 2020, as the report published on Tuesday by market research group HIS announced.
The report also says that IHS believes that CPV installations will get to 1,362 MW in 2020, given that in 2013 it has 160 MW. Of course , the installations discussed are to Indeed, installations are expected to enlarge to double-digit percentages every year through 2020.
CPV technology makes use of lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto solar cells. This process allows a more efficient PV energy generation, the use of additional optics for focusing sunlight has also driven up the cost of CPV compared to conventional PV installations, limiting the acceptance of concentrated solar solutions.
The situation is advancing in a high speed and rapidly changing, still, even though advancements in CPV technology cost effective.
“What is happening in today’s CPV market is very similar to that of the overall PV space in 2007, beset by high costs and an uncertain outlook,” are Karl Melkonyan’s words, a photovoltaic analyst at IHS. “However, the CPV market in 2013 is on the verge of a breakthrough in growth. Costs for CPV have dropped dramatically during 2013 and are expected to continue to fall in the coming years. Furthermore, when viewed from the perspective of lifetime cost, CPV becomes more competitive with conventional PV in large ground-mount systems in some regions.”
Roxana MORARU