Solergy’s 40 Year, Upgradeable Solar is based on High Concentrating Photovoltaic (HCPV) technology that has been designed and engineered in a completely new and different way.
By combining high efficiency, reliability, and low cost, Solergy CPV is a significant technology breakthrough in solar energy generation.
Advantages
- High Efficiency
30% electric efficiency.
70% electric + thermal cogeneration efficiency. - Reliable, Maximal Performance
Consistent performance under harsh operating conditions: 200 km/hr winds, extreme heat, dust, and sand storms. - High Value Cogeneration Applications
Hot water, process heat, agriculture, and higher efficiency desalination.
- More Energy
40% more energy per watt than traditional PV in year one, increasing to 100% more energy per watt after upgrade. - Long Lifetime with Increasing Power
40+ years with up to 40% power boost after low-cost cell upgrade performed directly in the field. - Aesthetic Design with Minimal Footprint
Harmonious, elegant integration with minimal visual & ecological impact; small footprint enables dual land use.
How it works
Legend
1. Glass Lens
2. Cone
3. Upgradeable receiver with multijunction cell
4. Fluid-based cooling & cogenerated heat
5. Actuators for fine tune alignment
6. Rotation center & sun sensor
Uniquely Robust
Solergy’s unique design has been engineered to provide consistent, maximal performance under the harshest environmental conditions including extreme winds, heat, thermal gradients, dust, and sand storms. Materials and assembly processes have been selected to ensure durability over many, many years.
Solergy’s patented technological breakthroughs:
- All-glass concentrating lens
Guarantees reliable optical performance and long life. - Active thermal control
Maximizes cell efficiency under any ambient temperature. Enables cogeneration of heat. Closed fluid circuit minimizes water usage. - 4-axis, high precision tracking
Guarantees that every single concentrator is aligned to the sun within 0.1°.
- Upgradeable Cone Concentrator Module
Precisely aligns each lens-cell pair in a hermetically sealed unit, preventing penetration of contaminants & humidity. Enables rapid cell upgrade in the field. - Self-calibrating panels
Fine-tune, automated panel alignment with remote monitoring & control accelerates installation and minimizes field maintenance visits. - Rigid, low profile tracker
Operates in up to 200km/hr winds with no safety stow position required. Low profile minimizes visual impact.
Highest Efficiency
Multijunction: 50% efficiency gain since 2000 and still lots of room to improve.
Silicon: no improvement with little space to grow.
Solergy CPV uses multijunction cells, the world’s highest efficiency solar cell technology. Multijunction cells have already achieved a record efficiency of 46% and have improved by an average of 1% absolute every year since 2000. With a theoretical efficiency limit of 72%, multijunction cells offer the most promising efficiency improvement roadmap of any cell technology.
Solergy’s upgradeability is uniquely able to capture ongoing efficiency gains in multijunction cells. Cell receivers can be easily replaced in the field at low cost; it’s practically like changing a light bulb.
On the other hand, the record silicon cell efficiency used in traditional PV has remained at 25% with no improvement since the year 2000. Silicon cells have a theoretical limit of 29% and therefore have very limited potential for efficiency gains. Also, PV panels offer no mechanism for easy maintenance or upgrade. When they reach end of life the only options are wasteful disposal or costly recycling.
More Energy When you Need it
Solergy CPV generates more energy throughout the entire day by tracking the sun with high precision. It also maintains a uniformly high generation level to deliver energy when its most needed. This is especially valuable during peak demand hours in the late afternoon and early evening when traditional, fixed PV starts to drop off.
Consistent production across all sunny hours of the day is essential for making self-consumption applications economically viable, maximizing value in a microgrid, and helping utilities better integrate and balance solar resources on the grid.
Solergy CPV delivers more energy when its needed.