ZenithSolar Ltd. (ZenithSolar) will launch its first solar farm in April 2009. The solar farm is based on concentrated photovoltaic systems. The system will produce over 70% of incoming solar energy. The farm has received more than $10 million of privately-raised capital from investors around the globe in adapting the technology to real world environment. The $1.5 million investment in the solar farm is providing a model, which can be replicated around the world.
The system has been developed by David Faiman, chairman of the department of solar energy and environmental physics at the University’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.
The company also plans to have models of the solar units available for wider distribution by the end of 2009.
Roy Segev, founder and chief executive officer ZenithSolar said that “the potential for this technology to provide low-cost, accessible energy for customers around the world is enormous. “Our system is simple enough to be applicable in almost any situation, whether it is industrial, commercial, residential or related to eco-tourism.”
“By concentrating solar energy to a level 1000 times more intense than natural sunlight,” explains Faiman, “and taking advantage of the higher efficiencies at which solar cells operate under these conditions, only minute amounts of expensive PV material are necessary to produce large amounts of power.” He is sure that systems such as ZenithSolar’s will accordingly eventually be able to operate economically without the need for subsidies.
“There is currently no other comparable technology available in the world,” Segev adds. “Working closely with David Faiman and Dr. Andreas Bett, head of department of materials – solar cells technology and his staff at Germany’s Fraunhofer Gesellschaft for Solar Energy Systems, we have created a solar energy system that is more efficient than any similar solar product.”