News Article
Soitec CPV cells selected for thirteen solar projects
The French firm's III-V Concentrix multi-junction cells will be used in power plants in France
Recently, the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE, Commission de Régulation de l’Energie) announced the winning bids of the second call for tenders from the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE, Commission de Régulation de l’Energie).
This was for the creation and operation of solar power plants with installed capacity of more than 250 kWc.
Soitec, a manufacturer of III-V and silicon semiconductor materials for electronics and energy, sees its concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules included in 80 percent of the projects selected.
Published in March 2013, the CRE’s second call for tenders calls for allocation of a volume of 20 MWc for ground plants exclusively based on CPV technology, plus a volume of 80 MWc for ground plants based on at least 50 percent on CPV, with a total minimum of 60 MWc allocated to CPV technology.
The sixteen projects finally selected further to this call for tenders represent a volume of 102.94 MWc. Thirteen of them (more than 80 percent) plan to use CPV modules manufactured by Soitec.
José Bériot, vice president of Solar Projects Development with Soitec’s Solar Energy division, explains: "Seeing our products present in a significant majority of the projects selected in this second call for tenders from the CRE is a great achievement for us. Overall, it represents a volume of more than 50 MWc for Soitec. This success is proof that our customers recognise the performance and reliability of our modules, and our ability to achieve profitability for future power plants."
Construction of the projects that have just been selected should be completed by spring of 2016, and the winning developers are now selecting the EPC contractors with whom they will partner on the construction sites.
Soitec's CPV technology uses III-V triple junction cells mounted on glass support plates. Fresnel lenses (manufactured using silicone on glass) concentrate sunlight five hundred times before it reaches these cells, which convert it into electricity.
A metal frame holds two glass plates to form highly robust, durable and resilient modules. By combining several modules on biaxial trackers (based on a proprietary algorithm automatically optimising their position based on the path of the sun), Soitec maximises energy generation throughout the day and its modules achieve a yield of 31.8 percent.
This was for the creation and operation of solar power plants with installed capacity of more than 250 kWc.
Soitec, a manufacturer of III-V and silicon semiconductor materials for electronics and energy, sees its concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules included in 80 percent of the projects selected.
Published in March 2013, the CRE’s second call for tenders calls for allocation of a volume of 20 MWc for ground plants exclusively based on CPV technology, plus a volume of 80 MWc for ground plants based on at least 50 percent on CPV, with a total minimum of 60 MWc allocated to CPV technology.
The sixteen projects finally selected further to this call for tenders represent a volume of 102.94 MWc. Thirteen of them (more than 80 percent) plan to use CPV modules manufactured by Soitec.
José Bériot, vice president of Solar Projects Development with Soitec’s Solar Energy division, explains: "Seeing our products present in a significant majority of the projects selected in this second call for tenders from the CRE is a great achievement for us. Overall, it represents a volume of more than 50 MWc for Soitec. This success is proof that our customers recognise the performance and reliability of our modules, and our ability to achieve profitability for future power plants."
Construction of the projects that have just been selected should be completed by spring of 2016, and the winning developers are now selecting the EPC contractors with whom they will partner on the construction sites.
Soitec's CPV technology uses III-V triple junction cells mounted on glass support plates. Fresnel lenses (manufactured using silicone on glass) concentrate sunlight five hundred times before it reaches these cells, which convert it into electricity.
A metal frame holds two glass plates to form highly robust, durable and resilient modules. By combining several modules on biaxial trackers (based on a proprietary algorithm automatically optimising their position based on the path of the sun), Soitec maximises energy generation throughout the day and its modules achieve a yield of 31.8 percent.
