On May 16th, 2011, Greentech Media (GTM) Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.) released a report stating that concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology is breaking through into the utility-scale solar market, and forecasting that new CPV installations will grow to more than 1 GW by 2015.

GTM Research states that providing developers with superior economics is a driving force in winning project bids, noting that under the right circumstances CPV can provide a lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) over non-concentrating solar photovoltaics (PV).

Majority of projects under development in U.S.

The report notes that CPV has undergone "decades" of research and development to get to this current stage.

GTM Research further notes that the large majority of projects by capacity under development are currently in the U.S., with a handful in Spain and even fewer in Portugal, Greece and Australia.

Concentrix, Amonix, SolFocus dominate project pipeline

These proposed CPV projects are mainly from three system manufacturers: Concentrix Solar GmbH (Freiburg, Germany) / Soitec S.A. (Bernin, France), Amonix Inc. (Seal Beach, California, U.S.) and SolFocus Inc. (Mountain View, California, U.S.).

GTM Research notes that 345 out of 358 MW of CPV either in operation or with a power purchase agreement (PPA) or feed-in tariff involves these three groups.

The report was released shortly before the May 18th, 2011 announcement of a new PPA for 125 MW of CPV between Soitec and San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E, San Diego, California, U.S.), which brings the global total to 483 MW.

Solar developers and independent power producers including Tenaska Solar (Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.), Cogentrix Energy LLC (Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.) and Sol Orchard (Carmel Valley, California, U.S.) have partnered with these companies to develop large-scale plants in the United States.

2011-05-20| Courtesy: GTM Research Inc. | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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