Leading the solar energy revolution with Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) technology

Climate change and increasingly scarce fossil fuel supplies have sparked renewed interest in renewable energy sources. Solar energy is currently by far the most promising and sustainable renewable energy; rolling out photovoltaic systems that offer both performance and competitive energy prices is today a crucial energy issue. In 2010, the photovoltaic market saw unprecedented growth. An impressive 15 GW of new PV systems were installed worldwide, making PV solar energy the second leading type of electrical production capacity installed in 2010.

Concentrix™ technology has made Soitec the world's leading provider of CPV systems. Concentrix technology is the most competitive solution on the market, offers the best design for use in sunny regions, is environmentally-friendly, and delivers the highest efficiencies on the market.

Soitec CPV systems boast record sunlight-to-electricity conversion yields (currently 26%). These yields are expected to increase to 37% by 2015 – two to three times the efficiencies offered by standard photovoltaic systems.

Building industrial-scale solar plants in sunny regions

Concentrix technology has been optimized for high-capacity industrial-scale solar power plants. The technology is ideal for use in areas with high direct normal irradiance (DNI) like Saharan Africa, southern Africa, the Middle East, Australia, part of South America and the Southwestern United States. Soitec CPV systems have already been built in more than ten countries, where their two-axis sun-tracking system delivers record yields.

Soitec CPV systems offer current yields of 26% with an increase to 37% expected by 2015.

Soitec was recently chosen to build the world's largest CPV power plant (150 megawatts) near San Diego, California.

Soitec provides three types of services to the solar energy market: solar cell design, industrial production of solar systems, and construction of turnkey solar energy plants.

The company is also currently leveraging its strong portfolio of technologies to develop an innovative new generation of solar cells. Soitec's R&D teams have joined forces with world-renowned research labs to see this ambitious new project through to fruition, partnering with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, a center for expertise in III-IV materials-based solar cells; and CEA-Leti, a leading center for research in the field of semiconductor materials.