ECOSOLE · Elevated Concentration photovoltaic solar energy generator and fully automated machinery for high throughput manufacturing and testing

Today most of HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaic) generators are built with refractive lenses. A few companies have developed efficient solutions and set up manufacturing lines for these kind of products, but there aren’t effective reflective optics HCPV systems in Europe.ECOSOLE regards the realization and demonstration of an innovative HCPV generator made of:• New high efficiency,very high concentration, photovoltaic modules made of high acceptance refractive optics with high performance coatings, new III-V spectrum tuned quantic effect multi-junction solar cells and novel heat and humidity management systems.• New high efficiency DC-AC module converters with radio communication and specific fast MPPT algorithms.• A low cost, high precision solar tracker with improved reliability moving parts and lightweight structures.The project will focus on the integrated design of the new HCPV generator and on the study and demonstration of new methods for its large scale low cost manufacturing. The project will also focus on the study and testing of the generator’s reliability. The generators will be tested in outdoor conditions in different sites and a system performance model will be developed.The product’s cost and performance are strictly affected by the manufacturing methods, and the product’s market competitiveness is dependent upon the manufacturing method and its automation level. The manufacturing process will be capable of very high production rates as high as 1 HCPV module per minute to guarantee the high throughput necessary to drop the manufacturing's cost.The new HCPV generator and its manufacturing methods will enable the setup of large production scale processes that will make it possible to deploy the new generators for the realization of huge photovoltaic power stations, preferably in desert areas and in the southern European regions, due to their higher application efficiency compared to standard PV systems.