This facility has been created both as a power generation facility and as a proving ground for concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology. The project hopes to demonstrate that CPV technology, with its higher efficiency and potential for cost reduction, will be an attractive alternative to other solar technologies in key solar resource regions around the globe.
The first 200kW phase of SolFocus’s deployment is ready to generate carbon-free electricity for the local power grid. SolFocus is continuing the development of the second phase of the project, which will bring the installed capacity of the CPV facility at the Institute of Concentration Photovoltaic Systems (ISFOC) to 500kW in August 2008.
Gary Conley, CEO of SolFocus, said: Completing this first stage of the ISFOC project marks a major milestone for SolFocus, and for concentrator photovoltaics in general, on our way toward achieving grid parity for renewable energy.
