First there was concentrated solar power, and now Semprius, Inc. is pushing the envelope with the introduction of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) technology. The company has just won a contract to provide the HCPV modules for a 200-kilowatt, $2.3 million demonstration project at Edwards Air Force Base in California, undertaken … [continued]
Yep, it’s that time again—a new solar module efficiency record has been set and independently verified. The solar module company is Semprius. The new efficiency record is 33.9%. And the modules are actually set to come to market this year.
The largest High Concentration Photovoltaic (HCPV) project in the world is being funded by the DOE with a $90 million loan guarantee for the Cogentrix Alamosa Solar Generating Project. The first 20 years of the electricity it will generate has already been bought under a PPA (power purchase agreement) by the Public Service Company of Colorado. More than 80 percent of its components will be sourced from the United States.
HCPV is new form of utility-scale solar that has barely been developed, but it has great potential because it has almost twice the efficiency of regular solar PV. Cogentrix HCPV is rated at 40% efficient. By comparison, most coal plants are typically rated at 30% efficiency.
The $90 million in funding represents the tail end of almost $40 billion in loan guarantees, loans, or conditional guarantees by the US Department of Energy (DOE) powered by the Obama administration stimulus Recovery Act.
One famously went bad, $0.5 billion to Solyndra. But the more than 40 DOE loan guarantees have
