Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Technology Gaining Ground
Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Technology has found some favor in 2010 with some major projects and investments coming its way.CPV Technology which is a poorer cousin of its more illustrious PV Technologies like c-Si and Thin Film has found some attention with its low cost and high efficiency.US Startups like Amonix,Solaria have found some traction bagging some big projects backed by financial investors.Concentrix Solar backed by European Specialist Wafer Producer Soitec has recently announced a partnership deal with US Energy Efficiency Leader Johnson Controls.With c-Si Technology fast reaching its Efficiency Limits,CPV is looked upon as the way forward for the Technology to progress.CPV Technology works by concentrating the energy of the sun through optics and has the potential to dramatically cut the costs as it uses much less materials.The Technology slowed down because of the polysilicon price crash but has found increasing attention in the past few days
China’s Hanlong Group to focus on CPV instead of c-SI
China’s Hanlong Group is a powerful Mining Conglomerate based in the Chinese province of Sichuan.The Company like many of the other Chinese Groups has planned a major investment in the Green Energy Field.Reports indicate that is it building a huge CPV manufacturing project in Chengdu city.The Company has also announced a $100 million investment in Singapore to manufacture and research CPV Technology.Note most Chinese manufacturers have concentrated their efforts on plain vanilla crystalline silicon technology with a few venturing into Thin Film as well like Trony Solar.But Hanlong Group is the first to prefer CPV in a major way.It is said to have over 30 patents in this technology.The company is strangely targeting Asia and Australia for its Green Strategy and leaving out Europe which accounts for over 80% of the global demand.
Singapore Hanlong Group, a top firm in China’s Sichuan province, has picked Singapore as its base to manage its business outside China. From here its subsidary Sichuan Zhonghan Solar Power Co Ltd will oversee assembly and sale of CPV systems as well as solar farm projects in regions such as Australia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The Hanlong Group claims patents in China for more than 30 CPV and solar power related technologies and products and is investing CNY7.6 billion ($1.1bn) to set up the world’s largest CPV plant in Chengdu in Sichuan province.
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[…] companies like BYD have also announced a big investment into solar panel manufacturing while Hanlong and Bluestar Groups have decided to invest in the CPV and Polysilicon sectors […]