The Current Status of CPV 2013

While the concentrated photovoltaic industry continues its progression, with more megawatts installed than ever, there are still questions surrounding the technology. Through a series of articles and contributions PV Insider analyze the present status and future prospects of CPV in this free guide.

The guide was compiled to mark the launch of CPV USA 2013, the 5th Concentrated Photovoltaic Summit USA (23-24 September, San Jose, CA). The conference is the biggest CPV focused conference in the USA this year, showing you how to reduce costs through technical innovation and optimized balance of systems to prove the viability of your CPV business.

The Current Status of CPV 2013

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Contents3 CPV battles to become the PV technology

with the lowest LCOE - PV Insider article

5 CPV in the age of inexpensive PV - SPV Market Research

6 Testing and simulation - Q&A with Alpha Omega Power Technologies

8 Innovation within Solar Power: From Beautiful Simplicity to High-Performance Complexity - Sandia National Laboratories

9 Expansion and bankability need to go hand in hand for CPV - PV Insider article

www.pv-insider.com/cpv • 2

www.pv-insider.com/cpv2013 • 3


CPV battles to become the PV technology with the lowest LCOE

The CPV sector has made slow progress over the past 12 months, but the period has been marked by a number of positive outcomes. CPV is gaining competitiveness in regions with high direct normal irradiation (DNI). The recent announcements of utility-scale CPV power plants prove that.

Soitec, for example, is in the middle of the construction phase of a 44 MW CPV power plant in Touwsrivier, South Africa. In the U. S., the company has projects with signed PPAs of about 300 MW in the pipeline.

This, as Soitec believes, shows that CPV is a matured technology, and it is ready for utility-scale deployment.

“It shows that the CPV market is taking off,” says Hansjörg Lerchenmüller, Senior Vice President Product Strategy of Soitec Solar Division.

In addition to Soitec’s 44 MW project in South Africa getting signed and fi nanced with modules already being deployed, there are a couple of other key developments, too – the Cogentrix 30 MW commissioning of modules produced by Amonix achieving power production at or above contract agreements, and Suncore’s commissioning of a 50 MW power plant in Golmud, China.

“These are huge achievements and bode well for future deployments of CPV with the data produced by these installations loosening the purse strings of fi nanciers who have been unwilling to fi nance new technologies to date,” says Jeff Allen, Vice President of business development at Solar Junction.

Rising Up To the Real ChallengeCPV can only use DNI to generate electricity and hence can only compete with other PV technologies in regions where the share of DNI is signifi cant in the total irradiation, points out Nikolai Dobrott, Managing Partner, Apricum – The Cleantech Advisory.

“But, importantly, one must not conclude that CPV is automatically competitive in high-DNI regions, as

standard PV technologies can of course also use DNI to convert sunlight into electricity. So the key question is whether CPV systems can be installed at a capital cost that can compete with standard PV systems and only then they can deliver lower LCOE than standard systems,” says Dobrott.

“The problem gets exacerbated by the perceived lack of bankability of CPV, which drives up cost of fi nancing and hence LCOE. These issues translate into the diffi cult task for CPV companies of designing systems with very low material usage, low technical complexity and easy

manufacturability that are at the same time very effi cient and very robust, together with a smart and capital-effi cient strategy to establish a track record and thus bankability.”

For their part, CPV companies are making progress. As Allen points out, continued reductions in system’s prices combined further increases in module performance leads to a pathway for CPV to become the PV technology with the lowest LCOE.

“CPV companies are reducing prices and achieving fantastic advances in module-level effi ciency,” he says. He adds examples of companies gaining in competitive attributes are most exemplifi ed by deployments, referring to Soitec Solar and Suncore Photovoltaics. “Additionally, both companies are building on successes of last year with a pipeline of much larger business opportunities for the current year.”

The CPV sector is eyeing Soitec with its large pipeline, which has the unique op-portunity to address the cost issue with economies of scale required to lower the cost for installing and maintaining such systems.

Ritesh Gupta, PV Insider

"One must not conclude that CPV is automatically competitive in high-DNI regions, as standard PV technologies can of course also use DNI to convert sunlight into electricity."



Trump Card - Effi ciencyCPV is the photovoltaic technology with the “highest effi ciencies”, says Lerchenmüller.

“Efficiency is a major lever on the costs applied to the module size. CPV modules achieve efficiencies of around 30%. This is about twice the efficiency of conventional silicon PV modules,” he says. “CPV also allows a cost-efficient use of solar cells, one of the main cost drivers in a module. The CPV technology uses optics to concentrate the sunlight by a factor of 500 to 1000 and focuses it onto the solar cells, which are reduced to a small fraction of the CPV module. That makes a cost-efficient use of highly-efficient multi-junction solar cells possible.”

Also, multi-junction solar cells have a huge potential for further effi ciency increases, which will also increase the competitiveness of CPV.

“As the CPV market is taking off, bulk purchasing also allows to signifi cantly reducing the components prices of CPV systems. In high DNI regions, as regards to the electricity generation cost, CPV can already keep up with conventional PV, even with aggressive module pricing as recently seen in the market. The growth of the CPV market will further improve economies of scale and will increase the competitiveness of CPV,” says Lerchenmüller.

For his part, Allen points out that a couple of years ago most companies departed the 500 suns paradigm in favour of moving to approximately 1000 suns concentration.

He says concentration is a huge lever to reduce LCOE as long as the componentry does not dramatically increase – which is typically the case. Some companies are pushing concentration beyond 1000 suns typically up to 1500 suns which is the upper limit typically due to the added cost of trackers and management of tracking.

“CPV is a relatively immature technology as compared to other PV technologies, therefore, the traditional learning curve of for every doubling of output a 20% cost reduction is gained. This is fi ne, but it may be diffi cult to grow capacity so quickly for some of these vendors, therefore, increased concentration / effi ciency are key pathways to LCOE reductions,” Allen says.

At the same time, there is a practical limit on concentration increase. Therefore, increased effi ciency resulting in higher energy generation has an additive benefi t which impacts the entire solar farm including the number of poles, trackers, modules, concrete and wiring. “Therefore, this is a very signifi cant benefi t,” says Allen.

Consolidation Days A number of signifi cant setbacks, as Allen explains, have happened over the past 12 months including the following:

Closure of GreenVolts – this was driven by the decision by ABB to not complete an investment agreement; ABB was having diffi culty competing against lower cost PV for their fl at-plate PV projects. This was not a refl ection on GreenVolts itself, but a more strategic decision by ABB to exit solar projects and just sell either traditional electrical project products. Siemens – Siemens initially invested in Semprius; Siemens had previously invested in its wind development, concentrated solar thermal and fl at projects, which were performing quite poorly compounded with economic issues within the entire corporation. Therefore, it was decided to restructure their renewables portfolio and, unfortunately, a decision was made to sell off various assets including the investment in Semprius. Siemens had been the primary international partner for driving Semprius’ pipeline and originally would have been the eventual acquirer. SolFocus – while SolFocus was making progress over the last 12 months announcing a large fi rst tranche of a greater 450 MW project in Mexico, no different than other large PV projects numerous delays occurred while the investor base became tired; a few months ago SolFocus was put up for sale.

The diffi culties of the market are part of the natural consolidation that was fully anticipated in the market. Unfortunately, the extremely low cost for panels from China have accelerated the consolidation, which has resulted in an extremely painful period.

Referring to the setbacks for the industry with even industry leaders like Amonix and SolFocus closing their plants and reducing their staff, Dobrott says: “If we take the amount of start-up capital already consumed by each of these companies as a benchmark for what is minimally required, it becomes clear that unfortunately there are yet more companies with whom investors will lose patience and will simply cut their losses.”

CPV has the potential to deliver on lower LCOE along with some other advantages like lower land requirement, but so far cost for it has been prohibitively high to make it competitive with standard PV.

Soitec with its large pipeline has the unique opportunity to address the cost issue with economies of scale required to lower the cost for installing and maintaining such systems. Frankly, the entire industry’s future depends greatly on how these large-scale plants will perform, concludes Dobrott.



CPV in the Age of Inexpensive PVPaula Mints, SPV Market Research

Inexpensive photovoltaic modules may be encouraging a boom in the deployment of PV systems, but these low module prices are casting a pall on sister solar technology sectors, CPV (both low and high) and CSP in terms of price competition.

Unfortunately, low ASPs for PV modules do not appropriately refl ect manufacturing costs, a fact on clear display in the gross margins for public PV manufacturers. In 2012 the average gross margin for all PV cell and module manufacturers (those developing the semiconductor technology) was -6.23%, with the average operating margin was -19%. 2013 is likely to be an easier year for c-Si manufacturers to earn positive margins as the price of polysilicon is currently in the range of $15 to $17/kilogram, a price that is approximately half the cost of production. This will allow c-Si manufacturers to potentially avoid both price reductions and hold prices steady while polysilicon manufacturers bear the brunt of PV industry downward price pressure.

CPV manufacturers must compete in what could be termed a hostile market with inexpensive c-Si systems that, when tracked, come close to the commercial effi ciency of CPV systems.

Failures of thin fi lm PV manufacturers, c-Si PV manufacturers, some developers as well as balance of system manufacturers (SatCon for example) have led to a crisis of confi dence among investors. As long time PV industry players and former leaders continue with negative margins and failure, questions of warranty viability have come to the fore. A technology sector that appears to be out of the mainstream (though the same could be said of all solar technologies) faces the trifecta of shaken investor confi dence, tough pricing competition as well as a lack of understanding about CPV technologies and history.

Soitec, which has seen delays in its multi-megawatt project in South Africa, finalized its 1-Billion Rand, USD $110.8-million (1 ZAR = 0.110805 USD, 1 USD = 9.02487 ZAR), which will be used towards installing the 44-MWp system. Assuming, based on the loan amount, a system cost of $2.52/Wp, when installed the system price would be competitive – assuming, that is, that this is the total project funding. Should the system perform as expected, or, outperform, this should alleviate at least some concerns about the sector. For CPV, expected performance is likely not

sufficient, for better or worse CPV installations need to outperform.

At a conference in December 2012, Amonix reported that performance data from its 30-MWp HCPV system in Alamosa, Colorado indicates that the system is producing at 110%. Continued positive performance data from deployed HCPV and LCPV might assuage investor anxiety.

Figure 1 offers a revised HCPV forecast to 2016. The forecast takes into account current industry realities including investor confi dence as well as competing technologies such as inexpensive PV. The conservative forecast has the highest probability.

Figure 2: HCPV Revised Forecast, to 2016

This piece is taken from the SPV Market Re-

search bi-monthly newsletter ‘Solar Flare’.

For more information, visit paulaspv.com

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■ HCPV history & low forecast■ HCPV conservative forecast■ HCPV accelerated forecast

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Testing and simulationAlpha-Omega Power Technologies

1) Please give an introduction to the company and your CPV activitiesAlpha-Omega Power Technologies, LLC (AOPT) was started in 1997 and has been producing production level pulsed solar simulators for the CPV market since 2003. In 2003 AOPT work with an industry leader in CPV technology to develop a state of the art pulsed solar simulator for production testing. Since that time, AOPT has worked with many CPV companies to refi ne our product. Today, AOPT offers a family of solar simulators for the very demanding aerospace industry and a full range of test systems for all levels of terrestrial CPV manufacturing. AOPT is now a world leader in supplying solar simulators for wafers, cells, receivers and large module testing of CPV products.

2) Why are solar simulators so important to CPV’s future?The best scientists and engineers developing innovative new technologies are only as good as the tools they have to provide the data needed to make decisions on product design and process changes. A good solar simulator with precise measurement capability is one of the most critical tools needed to provide this data during product innovation, development and production.

CPV companies need commercial simulators to take advantage of the many benefi ts they can offer. Having an independent company dedicated to the future of the test system product line provides more features, continuous improvement, support and stability than an in-house engineer can offer on a project. AOPT builds many simulators for many companies and has worked out the operational details with a diverse range of operators and scientists scrutinizing the operation and data. In this competitive market, the time to market is critical. This emphasizes the need for the high-quality data to be available for evaluation at every stage of the development cycle.

Achieving the highest level of performance and efficiency from a CPV product requires a simulator that can accurately measure variations as process and design changes are made. This means a simulator must have a tightly matched and repeatable spectrum, high

intensity and flat uniformity. International standards classify solar simulators in three classes for the primary characteristics of spectral match, non-uniformity and stability. The Class A spectrum match defined for PV is insufficient for tests of triple junction cells at 25%. AOPT simulators are designed for 1%. Simulators utilizing traceable references assure the manufacturer and end user of an accurate and verifiable measure of the device performance. AOPT simulators utilize up to 4 reference inputs.

In summary, consistently producing good products requires a controlled process and to control a process it must be monitored. The days of taking modules to the parking lot for testing on apparently clear days are gone. To instill the market’s confi dence in CPV products, it is necessary to provide the assurance that the manufacturer has the monitoring and controls in place to sustain a high volume production that will consistently meet their stringent requirements. 100% testing of CPV devices with solar simulators, that perform on the levels mentioned, is essential to develop and produce the quality and reliability of products the industry demands.

Interview with Joe Schneider, Business Development Manager, Alpha-Omega Power Technologies



3) What impact can testing/monitoring have on CPV’s cost reduction potential?Solar simulators have a cost impact throughout the CPV development and manufacturing process. Solar companies need to be able to focus their resources on their core competency, developing CPV products. A very good solar simulator with powerful software and data collection can be one of the best investments these companies could make.

Another way companies try to control costs is by minimizing or eliminating testing at some critical points in their manufacturing. The cost savings of fi nding product defects as early in the manufacturing cycle as possible is signifi cant. The cost can easily increase by an order of magnitude at each subsequent process step when defective parts move to the next level of assembly before being detected. The accumulating costs of labor, rework, and scrap pale when compared to customers fi nding defects and damaging the reputation and brand of the company.

Between cell manufacturing and completed module assembly, multiple companies may be involved. AOPT high intensity solar test systems provide the ability to test at several stages such as wafer, cell and receiver or mounted cells. Different modes are available to test larger areas such as large receivers, receivers with secondary optics, arrays or modules usually at lower intensities. CPV manufacturers that use simulators in various stages of manufacturing from the same family of products can save on operator and maintenance training, spare parts and the reduced labor of correlating test equipment measurements.

The productivity of a solar simulator is determined by the number of systems needed and can vary significantly depending on the equipment. AOPT simulators can test 240 or more cells per minute. The limitation of testing on this type of high speed system is the rate that devices can be handled by the automation equipment. Other important characteristics of solar simulators that impact manufacturing and product cost are the time and ease of calibration, correlation of multiple systems, repeatable performance and reliability of the equipment.

4) What in your opinion is the biggest challenge facing the CPV industry today?CPV designers continue to push for higher effi ciencies and lower cost to compete with other energy sources. The solar simulator can play an important role in both those areas. New technology multi-junction cells are

being developed with four and more junctions. These devices will require new testing capabilities to support the development and production of these higher effi ciency products. And to keep the cost of these new CPV products at a minimum the solar simulators will need to have an upgrade path to maximize the capital return on investment. AOPT is involved with CPV companies now developing the next generation products and will continue to support them as they strive to overcome todays and future CPV challenges.

5) What can the industry do to encourage the technology’s market acceptance?Market acceptance is determined by customers seeing a better ROI for CPV than other technologies. ROI is more than the initial cost. It is heavily dependent on reputation developed for quality and longevity. The industry needs to continue to demonstrate its’ persistence in meeting these high standards. One way CPV companies can demonstrate this commitment is by using the best manufacturing practices and testing tools available. AOPT is committed to providing the manufactures with the best CPV test tools to meet these standards.

6) What are your expectations for the technology in the next 12 months?The CPV industry is competing in a changing market with companies coming in and out of the business every year. During the last couple years more seem to be going out than in. This trend is expected to continue as the industry matures and grows substantially in the next 12 months. New geographic markets such as MENA are growing rapidly and investing in technology and manufacturing facilities. New higher efficiency cells will move from R&D to volume manufacturing and CPV will continue to become more completive in high DNI geographies.

Joe Schneider is Business

Development Manager at Alpha-Omega

Technologies. At CPV USA 2013, Joe

will be discussing the role of test data in

productivity, ef� ciency, quality, cost and

market acceptance.

See more at www.pv-insider.com/cpv2013



Innovation within Solar Power: From Beautiful Simplicity to High-Performance ComplexityGregory N. Nielson, PhD, Sandia National Laboratories

The beauty of wafer silicon PV technology is its simplicity. This simplicity has allowed wafer silicon PV to dominate the PV industry. However, the simplicity also signifi cantly limits its future potential. Commercial wafer silicon cells and modules are already available that are very near the practical limit of conversion effi ciency of silicon. Furthermore, the manufacturing cost component of wafer silicon modules have been driven down to the point where the modules are now highly dominated by materials costs (which are much more diffi cult to fundamentally reduce). Given these limits, “disruptive” reductions of LCOE for solar power are more likely to come from technologies that have the potential for signifi cantly improved performance, such as concentrated photovoltaics (CPV).

At Sandia National Laboratories, we are working on a new vision for CPV that has the potential to provide enhanced capabilities and performance that will lead to reduced $/Wpeak costs. This vision takes advantage of technology and infrastructure from microsystem industries (e.g., IC, MEMS, LED, etc.). These industries have matured over the course of decades and are now a more than $300B per year industry. Fundamentally, microsystem industries succeed by taking advantage of benefi cial scaling effects where new functionality, better performance, or lower costs are achieved by making some component of the system very small. This path to differentiated performance and cost through fundamental scaling effects is exactly what we are trying to replicate in solar power.

Within PV there are a signifi cant number of benefi cial scaling effects that come into play as solar cells are reduced to the micro-scale. To take advantage of these scaling effects, we are exploring micro-concentrator PV modules with cell sizes down to approximately 100 microns across. This approach allows very signifi cant benefi ts such as concentrator module thicknesses comparable to fl at plate PV modules (~1 cm) with concentration factors up to 400X. These systems use sophisticated (but inexpensive) refractive optics that provide a relatively wide collection angle of at least ±2° and an optical effi ciency of >90% of direct illumination. The wide acceptance angle, combined with the thin form factor, allows the modules to be mounted on existing low-cost, coarse two-axis trackers currently used for fl at-plate modules.

Interestingly, the system level scale benefi ts don’t end there. By using large numbers of very small solar cells it is possible to create passive interconnect networks within the module that provide intrinsic shade tolerance, high-

voltage output directly from the module, and robustness to module damage such as electrical opens or shorts that would completely cripple current modules. Also, due to the large number of cells and the high-voltage capability of the module, new architectures for module-integrated 3-phase inverters are possible that signifi cantly reduce the size and number of discrete components required, reducing size and cost while increasing inverter lifetime and performance.

Additional scale benefi ts are present at the cell level also. Micro-scale cells have signifi cantly higher heat transfer capabilities compared to large cells due to the much larger surface area to volume ratio of the micro-scale cells, which allows simple heat management systems and low operating temperatures. Small-dimensioned cells release in tens of minutes using Epitaxial Lift-off (ELO - for wafer reuse cost savings) as compared to full wafer ELO which can take tens of hours. Micro-scale cells can have all metal lines removed from the optical aperture of the cell, eliminating shading losses. Finally, small-scale cells lend themselves to “3D Integration” techniques from the IC industry that can eliminate constraints on both lattice matching and current/spectrum matching for multijunction solar cells, allowing the possibility of even higher conversion effi ciencies as compared to today’s highest performing cells.

Taken together, these fundamental scaling effects can provide dramatic improvements in performance and reductions in cost. Cost modeling indicates that this type of system would be capable of providing system costs signifi cantly less than today’s PV systems (without any subsidies) due to the high-performance and low-cost nature of the module combined with the low-cost BOS costs resulting from the fl at-plate BOS systems used. Furthermore, given the form factor of the module and system, distributed, commercial rooftop generation is possible allowing the system to compete (favorably) with retail grid power prices.

If the cost and performance potential of this type of system is realized, the solar industry will move from the simple beauty of wafer silicon PV to a more complicated, high-performance CPV solution. It is interesting to step back and consider that in almost all applications of technology that have importance in society, the evolution of the technology has been from simple early solutions to more complex solutions that provide greater performance and/or functionality at a lower fundamental cost level. This has been seen in computers, automobiles, telephones, recorded music players, airplanes, etc., and will very likely be seen in solar power as well.



Acceptance and hold-ups, expansions and closures are all part and parcel of any renewable energy technology’s journey.

CPV, as an upcoming solar technology, has had its share of ups and downs in the last year or so, but those entities that are expanding, defi nitely promise to take the sector to a new level.

It is acknowledged that CPV has struggled lately due to fast price decline for standard PV panels. The key miscalculation of CPV players has been that they skated where the focus (i.e., cost of PV panels) has been, rather than where it is going to be. Together with the lack of bankability, this has led to only a very low market penetration of CPV so far, says Nikolai Dobrott, managing partner, Apricum – The Cleantech Advisory.

“However, we expect that PV pricing will more or less plateau short- to mid-term, which may give CPV players the unique opportunity to gain market share, but only if they reach the very demanding price points necessary and if they crack the bankability issue,” says Dobrott.

Emergence of New Markets Another unique opportunity is currently provided by the emergence of markets in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, where CPV could not only benefi t from high direct solar irradiation, but also from the potential to localise manufacturing.

“In any case, it will defi nitely continue to be a tough battle for the CPV industry, with many companies yet to go out of business. Among all players, we are looking with particular interest at what Soitec is doing, which has many large-scale projects in the pipeline, has reached some economies of scale in manufacturing, and has suffi cient corporate backing to fi nance its market entry,” says Dobrott.

"We have CPV installations worldwide in 14 countries at

Expansion and bankability need to go hand in hand for CPVAs the CPV sector comes to grips with a slowdown in the US and Europe, it sees the expediency required to get pilot systems on the ground in markets such as Saudi Arabia, South Africa and China to strengthen its bankability.

Ritesh Gupta, PV Insider

the moment and we are expecting a signifi cant growth of the CPV market in several high DNI regions,” Hansjörg Lerchenmüller, Senior Vice President Product Strategy of Soitec Solar Division

For its part, Soitec emphatically states that it is expanding its CPV business. The company recently fi nalised a $108m bond for its 44MW Touwsrivier project in South Africa. This is the fi rst publicly-listed project bond ever issued to fi nance a solar power plant based on CPV technology.

“In the US, we have a project pipeline of 300 MW with signed PPAs. Therefore, we opened a new factory in San Diego towards the end of 2012. The factory is

designed to reach 280 MW at full production. 140 MW are already operational. In South Africa, we are about to launch the construction of the 44 MW project. We have CPV installations worldwide in 14 countries at the moment and we are expecting a signifi cant growth of the CPV market in several high DNI regions,” says Hansjörg Lerchenmüller, Senior Vice President Product Strategy of Soitec Solar Division.

Field Experience that will boost bankabilityWhile expansion can be owing to several positive attributes, the CPV sector should look at proving its promise on an ongoing basis.

Field experience is one of the most important factors to ensure high-levels of adoption and expansion of the CPV market. Successful data showing consistent and

"We have CPV installations worldwide in 14 countries at the moment and we are expecting a signifi cant growth of the CPV market in several high DNI regions,”



long-term performance track record from Amonix’s large Cogentrix deployment and others including Suncore and Soitec will demonstrate the ruggedness and reliability of CPV while providing comfort and justifi cation for larger projects in the future.

One of the biggest challenges for the CPV sector is the bankability of systems in new environments, especially in the upcoming markets of the Middle East, which are an attractive target market for CPV companies due to potential for high DNI, says Dobrott.

“By having good fi eld data, arranging the project fi nancing for the project will be much easier. This underlines how crucial it is for CPV companies to get pilot systems on the ground as quickly as possible,” he says.

US slowdown Other than Spain, where current sentiments are expectedly bearish, the US market is going slow due to the fi nancial markets’ conservatism due to lack of clarity on the worldwide macroeconomic situation.

Other countries and regions, such as China and MENA (Saudi Arabia) are leading adoption of the technology and will be the short-term leaders.

At the same time, once the new technology risk is further retired, then CPV has a chance to take its place as the LCOE leader. There is a risk though that CPV remains a nascent technology without people driving the technology as much as possible domestically in the interim.

The major hurdle, no different than other new PV technologies, is securing both funding and project fi nance from lenders. Due to the current macroeconomic situation, fi nanciers have become exceeding conservative for project fi nancing limiting adoption. This adoption limit trickles down to stunts future projects in CPV. Some companies

are self-funding – building the plant themselves and fl ipping the project for sale to a solar plant owner / operator - and others are securing creative fi nancing.

Combatting Risk Dobrott points out that the entire CPV value chain is riddled with chicken-and-egg situations. The perceived risk of a new technology gets increased by the fi nancial weakness of most system manufacturers, with operators legitimately worrying about warranties and maintenance contracts. Most of the component suppliers like cell manufacturers do not have lot of visibility into the future and hence cannot work on capacity expansions required to reach economies of scale and push cost down, he says. Also with many companies facing liquidity issues, fi nancing working capital is not easy for many CPV manufacturers.

All of these factors lead to increased risk margins and costs. For a plant operator, with an existing CPV plant, there is quite little that can be done if a crucial supplier or warrantor goes down except for hoping the system survives throughout its designated lifetime.

Dobrott says warranty risks can be reduced by requiring CPV companies to take direct stakes in the projects. Also ramping up the project in phases with more relevant fi eld data from initial systems can help operator to reduce its risk. Supply chain risks can be tackled if CPV companies work closely with suppliers to reduce the capital expenditure and working capital requirements, which will help to manage the liquidity in this environment.

For future projects, plant developers need to look at the supplier risk and might need to make some prepayments to ensure that suppliers get the required commitment to expand the supply to meet the demand from future projects, recommends Dobrott.

I hope you have found this guide useful. With so many questions facing the concentrated photovoltaic industry, PV Insider will be producing articles and information in the coming months to address the big issues.

In addition, at CPV USA 2013 (23-24 September, San Jose, CA) the industry will gather to discuss strategies to drive down costs and prove the technology’s viability.

For more information, including speaker line-up, agenda, and details of our conference exclusive Solaria tour, visit www.pv-insider.com/cpv2013

The Current Status of CPV 2013

Technology

Transcript of The Current Status of CPV 2013