Sol3g talks M40 HCPV Solar Modules and Systems at Intersolar

[Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany]

Increasing production capacity to 5MWp (MegaWatt-peak) in 2007

Sol3g, S.L., headquartered in Cerdanyola, SPAIN, was marketing their M40 HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaic) solar modules along with complete HCPV systems and pilot installations per Sol3g Participates in Intersolar 2007.

The M40 HCPV module (Data Sheet) uses a dual optic system to concentrate sunlight with a Fresnel lens onto a secondary non-imaging optic and then a III-V Triple Junction Terrestrial Solar Cell. This design provides optical concentration equivalent to 380 suns.

Each module is a linear array of ten (10) cells, and the solar cells are mounted on receiver substrates with mechanical connectors for series connection and the secondary optic is glued on top of the cell. Please see my grainy, haphazard photo taken from the side of the module for the unclear assembly. A way detailed 36 page technical proposal, Technical Memory, is available for download from the Sol3g website. I suggest getting a copy of this before Sol3g realizes this should be treated as company confidential information.

Sol3g sells complete 1kWp (kiloWatt-peak) and 4kWp HCPV systems with M40 modules bundled with trackers from partner FEiNA SCP. At standard test conditions, the S1000 delivers 1kWp of power mating two arrays of fourteen (14) M40 modules with the FEiNA SC4 tracker. The S4000 delivers 4kWp of power mating four arrays of twenty eight (28) M40 modules with the FEiNA SC16 tracker. Sol3g also sells M40 modules for integration with a customer’s tracker. For this purpose, M40 modules require a 2 axis solar tracker with a precision of +/-0,5°.

Sol3g has pilot installations totaling 4kWp located in Denmark (Braestrup) and Spain (Mont-Ras, Gerona, Cerdanyola del Vallés, Barcelona, and Sevilla). Another 35kWp of pilot installations are reported to be in process for Spain and Europe.

Although Sol3g said:

The company plans for year 2007 aim at increasing its production capacity up to 5MWp / year during the first two quarters of the year…

I hear there is a slight delay with the ramp, but the new production capacity should be in place very soon. To produce 5MWp of M40 modules per year, Sol3g will need to source as many as 156,250 III-V Solar Cells from AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH. Prior to the production expansion, Sol3g had capacity of about 50kWp per year beginning production in summer 2006. See the figure below for Sol3g's module cost roadmap through 2009 for the M40 modules.

And thanks to Rob Day at Cleantech Investing (http://cleantechvc.blogspot.com/) for a bunch of recent links to GUNTHER Portfolio including Recurrent Energy, EPV and other news.