Concentrated PV Roundup With SunPower, SolFocus, and Amonix: We've long maintained that CPV is a niche product...
SunPower claims their C7 Tracker has up to a 20 percent lower Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) than competing technologies. SunPower did not clarify whether those competing technologies were other low concentration PV (LCPV) or fixed flat plate solar panels or panels on trackers. The firm did maintain that the C7 tracker provides "the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for utility-scale solar power plants available today." SunPower said that "a 400-megawatt C7 Tracker power plant requires less than 70 megawatts of SunPower solar cells." This assembly is a seven-sun concentrator using a single-axis tracking technology with rows of parabolic mirrors. The concentrator would effectively allow the company to increase the power output of its utility-scale solar plants at a time when gaining efficiency the old-fashioned way is becoming challenging. SunPower will soon...
Full article:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Concentrated-...