After decades of R&D, the concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) industry is finally breaking into the utility-scale solar market. Analysts forecast new CPV installations to grow from under 5 MW in 2010 to more than 1,000 MW globally by 2015. The key driver enabling CPV to win projects in high-solar resource locations is CPV's ability to provide developers with superior economics, as CPV has a lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) versus the non-concentrating PV alternatives.

Currently, the CPV pipeline is dominated by three system manufacturers: Concentrix Solar, Amonix, and SolFocus. Solar Developers and Independent Power Producers (IPPs), such as Tenaska Solar, Cogentrix, and Sol Orchard have recently partnered with these leading CPV companies to develop large-scale plants in the U.S.

The CPV report is the most comprehensive analysis available - with over 70 company profiles and a complete listing of key specifications for all 170 CPV projects in operation or under development worldwide. The report focuses on CPV’s competitive position within the greater solar market, and compares High, Medium, and Low CPV versus non-concentrating solar options on key metrics including: installed cost per watt, capacity factor, land usage, O&M costs, current and forecasted LCOE, and bankability.

VALUE-ADDED ELEMENTS:

• Project tracker with more than 170 CPV projects
• CPV technology advances and requirements in the field of cells, optics and trackers
• Comprehensive cost matrices, presenting CPV economics in relation to competing solar technologies
• CPV cost forecasts through 2015, with in-depth LCOE and capital cost breakdowns by technology and geographic location
• Market demand forecasts through 2015 by country and U.S. state
• Market profiles dissecting competitive histories of industry's leading players

QUESTIONS FOR COMPETITIVE DECISION-MAKING:

• Why should developers consider CPV for utility scale solar projects?
• Which are the most bankable CPV systems?
• How do CPV economics compare against other solar options in high, medium, and low solar resource locations?
• Who are the key players in the CPV Value Chain – developers, EPCs, III-V triple junction cell manufacturers, Fresnel lens suppliers, tracking system vendors, and electricity purchasers?
• Which countries show the most potential for CPV adoption?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction/ Executive Summary
1.1 Synopsis
1.2 Outline

2 Understanding the End Customer’s Needs
2.1 Location, location, location
2.2 The opportunity cost of transmission
2.3 End-user cost of transmission
2.4 Solar abundance
2.5 When is electricity used?
2.6 Summary
3 The Promise of CPV
3.1 Photovoltaic cells and cell efficiency
3.2 Efficiency effect on system cost
3.3 Benefits of concentration—even low
concentration
3.4 Summary

4 CPV Technology Requirements
4.1 Optics
4.2 Heat
4.3 Diffuse and direct solar radiation
4.4 Tracking the sun
4.5 Cells
4.6 Market penalty
4.7 Summary

5 Competitive Analysis of Current CPV Systems
5.1 Calculating LCOE
5.2 Solar harvest: kWh/W and kWh/m2
5.3 Cost
5.4 LCOE: ¢/kWh
6 Future Prospects for CPV
6.1 Cost and Efficiency projections
6.2 Market size
6.3 Summary

7 Profiles of CPV Players
7.1 Overview of industry
7.2 HCPV
7.3 MCPV
7.4 LCPV
7.5 Most bankable firms, based on
installations/announced projects/funding
7.6 Conclusions
8 Company Profiles
Absolicon Solar
Amonix Inc.
Abengoa Solar
Arima EcoEnergy
Banyan Energy
brightLeaf Technologies
Browave
Circadian Solar
C Power srl
Concentrix Solar GmbHCool Earth Solar
Covalent Solar
Concentración Solar la Mancha (C.S. La
Mancha) also Renovalia
Daido Steel
Delta Electronics
EdTek
EHW Research
Emcore Corporation
Energy Innovations
Enfocus Engineering
Entech Solar
ES System Co. Ltd
Everphoton Energy Corporation
Green and Gold Energy
Greenfield Solar
GreenVolts
Guascor Fotón
Heliotrop
Isofotón
JX Crystals
MegaWatt Solar
Menova Energy
Morgan Solar
MST
On Sun Systems
OPEL International Inc.
Pacific SolarTech Inc.
Prism Solar Technologies, Inc.
Pyron Solar
Pythagoras Solar
Semprius
Sharp
Silicon CPV plc
Skyline Solar
Skyline Solar
Sol3G
Solar Systems Pty. Ltd. A subsidiary of Silex
Systems Ltd
Solaria Corporation
Solaris Synergy
Solar Tec International AG
Solergy
Solfocus Inc.
Soliant Energy Inc.
Soltec Renewable Energies
Spirox
Stellaris
SunCycle
Sunengy
Sunrgi
SunSeeker Energy
Taihan Techren
Whitfield Solar Ltd
WS Energia S.A.
XE Solar
zenith solar
Zettasun
Zytech Solar

9 Bibliography

LIST OF FIGURES

1 Introduction/ Executive Summary
CPV Plants In Operation / Under Construction / Development (with PPA/FIT)
Global CPV Projects by Stage and System Manufacturer
Global CPV Ecosystem
LCOE Forecast by Solar Technology, 2010-2015
Potential Buyers of CPV Systems in the US
Bankability ranking
US: Existing Utility-Contracted Solar Pipeline
US: Existing Utility-Contracted Solar Pipeline by Developer Type
US Solar Projects w/ PPAs by Expected Online Date
Potential State Markets

2 Understanding the End Customer’s Needs
Night sky (Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute, 2001)
Annual DNI solar resource (meteotest, 2008)
Deserts of the world (pbs.org, 1996)
Grid interconnections (North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 2007)
Critical Congestion Areas in U.S.
Transmission limited solar
Price of transmission, distribution, and electricity (U. S. Energy Information Administration, 2010)
Solar resource needed to supply world electricity needs (Loster, 2010)
Area needed to solarize U.S.
Seasonal peak day electricity demand
Solar resource seasonal profile
Typical electricity load curve breakdown (Federation of American Scientists, 2008)

3 The Promise of CPV
Solar spectrum (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2009)
Silicon and SunPower Si spectrum
Spectrolab triple junction spectrum
Value of efficiency
Best research cell efficiencies (Kurtz, 2010)
Concentration and cell cost
1 Capex of silicon supply chain
Efficiency dependence on concentration (Antonio Luque, 2005)

4 CPV Technology Requirements
SolFocus reflective optics
Refractive optics
Efficiency losses in optical path
Effect of Temperature on Cell Performance by Technology
Theoretical maximum acceptance angle vs. concentration
% DNI to DNI + diffuse: Sensitivity to DNI (U. S. Department Of Energy , 2010)
Average temperature, daily DNI, and % DNI for sample U.S. locations
Cosine loss in fixed solar panels
Cosine loss
Shading with tilt or tracking
Shadow length of 1 meter panel
5 Daily solar resource profile by mounting for four days throughout year in Phoenix, AZ
Tracker implementations

5 Competitive Analysis of Current CPV Systems
Equation for LCOE
Differentiating factors related to solar harvest (kWh/W)
PV material choice effects on harvest: Typical annual degradation, temperature coefficients, and spectral mismatch effect
Typical NOCT
Conditions for nameplate rating
Adjustment for low concentration and flat plate efficiency
Concentration and tracking related losses
Loss by typical installation
Available resource for select locations with greater than 2000 kWh/m2/yr DNI
Annual harvest potential by location for the PV technology/install combination
Relative first-year harvest potential compared to 1-axis tracked non-concentrating silicon
Capacity factor by technology for select locations with greater than 2000 kWh/m2/yr DNI
Capacity factor
2010 installation 25-year harvest of 1 m2 panel of given technology with assumed panel efficiency
25-year harvest from 1 sq. meter installed panel
kWh/W for select locations and installation types
25yr kWh/W
2010 Module and Cell Efficiency and Module Costs
2010 BOS cost components and how they scale with panel efficiency
Installation Costs in $/W-dc
Land usage comparison
Land cost
Lifetime O&M cost estimates
Financing assumptions
Graphical comparison of competitive locations for HCPV
LCOE in cents/kWh
All CPV competitive space, 2010
Percent greater price compared to CdTe in 2010
Relative contribution to LCOE

6 Future Prospects for CPV
Projected module and cell efficiency
Projected module costs $/W
Projected installation costs $/W
Projected installed system cost $/W
Projected installed system price with 20% margin
Projected LCOE and competitive space, 2011
Projected LCOE and competitive space, 2012
Projected LCOE and competitive space, 2013
Projected LCOE and competitive space, 2014
Projected LCOE and competitive space, 2015
CPV Consortium installation projection compared to PV projections
CPV market size to 2015

7 Profiles of CPV Players
Recent funding, acquisitions, exits
Year company entered CPV space
Cell providers for HCPV applications
HCPV traditional panel gallery
HCPV dense cell array systems
Small ‘boxes’ and ‘other’ panel designs
Rooftop and flat panel HCPV
MCPV gallery
LCPV gallery
Most likely to succeed list by CPV segment
CPV Company Overview
All CPV Projects ranked by size