Soitec’s Concentrix™ technology
Soitec’s Concentrix technology was created at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute. Every aspect of the technology has been optimized to offer a commercial solution for highly efficient solar energy generation.
Soitec’s CPV modules are built on Concentrix technology. They use Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight 500 times and focus it onto small, highly efficient multi-junction solar cells. With this technology we achieve a module efficiency of 30%. This is almost twice as high as the efficiency of conventional silicon photovoltaic modules. With our first demonstration systems dating back to 2005, we now have a solid track record of more than 10 MWp installed CPV power plants based on Concentrix technology in 14 countries.
Soitec manufactures IEC-certified CPV modules in a fully-automated 70 MWp industrial production facility in Freiburg, Germany — one of the world’s most modern CPV module manufacturing facilities. Our modules, based on a simple, yet robust optical concept, are designed for automated mass production at consistently high quality and module efficiency levels. The high degree of automation also allows us to build new production lines on a smart copy basis. In December 2012 Soitec inaugurated its solar manufacturing facility in San Diego to locally produce CPV modules for the US renewable energy market.
The basic research underpinning our Concentrix technology was developed over more than a decade at Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE, Europe’s largest solar research institute. Fraunhofer ISE has conducted research on CPV modules since the 1990s. Since 2002, the Institute’s CPV research focus has shifted to the development of CPV manufacturing production technologies compatible with successful industrial commercialization. In 2005, the Institute founded a spin-off, Concentrix Solar, to commercialize the technology. Soitec acquired Concentrix Solar in 2009.