News Article
Concentrix Solar & Johnson Controls Will Bring CPV into 21st Century Utilities Market
Johnson Controls will build, operate, maintain and provide lifecycle support for solar installations built using Concentrix CPV technology around the globe.
Concentrix Solar, a division of Soitec, focusing on concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, has finalized a global alliance with Johnson Controls.
Johnson Controls provides turnkey project development, engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance of large scale energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
Under this collaboration, Johnson Controls and Concentrix Solar will identify and respond to commercial opportunities for the project development, and construction of utility scale solar energy facilities. Johnson Controls will build, operate, maintain and provide lifecycle support for solar installations using Concentrix CPV technology.
The combination of the respective strengths of both companies: efficient and cost effective technology on the one hand, and a leader in energy efficiency and sustainability on the other hand, should provide to accelerate the successful development and installation of solar renewable energy utility scale plants in Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) regions across the globe.
"Before forming our alliance with Concentrix Solar, we studied all primary solar technologies and market participants. We concluded that the combination of Soitec's technical capabilities in engineered substrate solutions and Concentrix Solar's module design together provides the market leading solution for solar power generation in high DNI regions around the world," stated Iain Campbell VP & GM of Global Energy and Workplace Solutions, Johnson Controls.
"We are delighted to team up with Johnson Controls, who shares our vision for sustainable and economically viable, solar renewable energy," said Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve, chairman and CEO, Soitec. "Together, we understand the market opportunity and positive environmental impact that solar renewable energy power will bring to both existing and future facilities, and are excited to provide integrated solutions to our customers."
Concentrix Solar's cost effective and innovative CPV technology, with its high efficiencies and two-axis tracking, is ideally suited to areas in the world that have high direct solar irradiation.
Concentrix Solar will exhibit in booth #2701 at Solar Power International, October 12-14 in Los Angeles.
Concentrix Solar GmbH is a leading supplier of concentrator photovoltaic equipment and turnkey power plants for sunny locations. The company was founded in February 2005 as a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. In December 2009, the firm became a division of the Soitec Group.
Concentrix Solar operates a fully automated industrial production line in Freiburg, Germany. Its FLATCON(R) concentrator modules use Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight 500 times and focus it onto small, highly efficient solar cells that convert the light into electrical energy. With this technology, Concentrix Solar achieves AC system efficiencies of 25 %, claimed to be almost twice as high as those achieved by conventional silicon technology. As a result, these systems can reduce the cost of electricity generation by 10 to 20 % as compared to other solar technologies, depending on the location of the installation.
