cpv

GreenVolts is blasting the equivalent of 1,300 suns onto a solar cell to survive in the cut-throat solar industry

The Fremont, Calif.-based start-up today announced it has raised an additional $35 million and unveiled a redesigned large-scale solar array. The series D funding brought $20 million from industrial conglomerate ABB which will market GreenVolt's solar system to businesses and utilities.

The solar industry is undergoing a brutal price war driven by the rapidly falling price of conventional silicon solar panels. GreenVolts has designed a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system, where powerful Fresnel lenses focus light onto several super-efficient … Read more

Morgan Solar has brought on Canadian oil and gas distributor Enbridge as an investor to commercialize its concentrating-photovoltaic panels.

The Toronto-based company today said that Enbridge has invested $9.8 million as part of a $28.8 million round of funding.

Enbridge's primary business is oil and gas distribution but it has invested in a few solar energy projects that use traditional flat photovoltaic panels. Morgan Solar is the first solar technology it has invested in.

The money will be used to expand manufacturing capacity of Morgan Solar's concentrating-photovoltaic modules and trackers.

The company's core technology is … Read more

Talk about walking the walk when it comes to solar energy.

Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) manufacturer Amonix has built a factory and office space that uses solar panels as the sole power source, the company announced Wednesday.

The 214,000 square-foot facility uses eight of the company's MegaModule CPV solar systems, to serve the entire power need for the production plant and some connected office space. The system supplies "100 percent of the North Las Vegas facility's energy needs," according to Amonix.

Of course, it should be noted that this plant is located in Nevada, an area … Read more

Typically, cost is the driving concern when choosing one renewable energy technology over another. But a pair of studies that consider land use give the edge to niche forms of solar and wind power generation.

Caltech researcher John Dabiri, a professor of aeronautics and bioengineering, this week presented results of a test that found that vertical-axis wind turbines have the potential to generate more power per square meter than the propeller-like, three-blade wind turbines. The key is that vertical-axis turbines can be placed close together without creating the type of wind disturbances that would sap performance of traditional turbines.

Dabiri … Read more

Solar Junction, a Silicon Valley solar start-up, said today that its solar cell has been measured at a peak efficiency of 43.5 percent, topping previous records.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company said that the efficiency mark was verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Measurement and Characterization Laboratory.

To achieve the 43.5 percent mark, Solar Junction designed a multijunction cell made of multiple layers of photovoltaic material. Each layer is optimized to convert a different portion of the light spectrum to electrical energy.

To boost the amount of sunlight that goes into the very small, 5.… Read more

Solar Junction's solar cell is like a tiny layer cake able to crank out more power per inch than most cells.

The 4-year-old company yesterday said it expects to start production of its high-efficiency solar cells by early next year in its home town of San Jose, Calif. It is also awaiting word in the next few months on an $80 million loan from the Department of Energy, which would give it favorable financing to expand its current demonstration plant to produce 250 megawatts worth of cells per year, said co-founder Craig Stauffer.

Solar Junction cells are designed to … Read more

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric got approval for an initiative that seeks to ramp up solar-power production but sidestep the permitting hurdles of large-scale solar and the expense of rooftop panels.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a five-year program where PG&E will install solar photovoltaic arrays between 1 megawatt and 20 megawatts in size. In all, the installations will have a capacity of 500 megawatts worth of solar, enough to power 150,000 homes, according to PG&E.

The approach is to build midsize solar arrays and locate them near power substations, which … Read more

The concentrated photovoltaics industry got another nod of confidence Wednesday.

Amonix, a CPV manufacturer, announced it has raised $129.4 million in Series B funding, with Kleiner Perkins named the lead investor. The Seal Beach, Calif.-based company said it will use the funds to expand manufacturing in an effort to get its CPVs out the door more quickly.

Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar systems differ from regular solar panels in that they use lenses or mirrors to concentrate sunlight on solar cells to maximize the amount of electricity you can generate from solar rays. The technology, while more expensive than … Read more

Solar start-up SolFocus on Monday said it has signed an agreement in Greece to produce electricity from its concentrated solar arrays.

The installation will produce 1.6 megawatts, enough to power about a town of about 2,500 residents at any given moment. Renewable-energy developer Samaras Group will head the installation, which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2009.

SolFocus, formed in 2006, is one of the leading companies in a race to validate concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology for utility use. It already has a handful of customers, including some in Spain.

Concentrated photovoltaic technology takes different forms, … Read more