Soitec wins first order from China for concentrator photovoltaic systems

Date Announced: 30 Nov 2011

3MW installation to be built on the edge of the Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang province.

Bernin, France, November 30, 2011 — Fulfilling its first order for solar-energy systems from the People’s Republic of China, Soitec (Euronext), a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy industries, has shipped its Concentrix™ concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems to Focusic (China) New Energy Holding Co., Ltd., a Chinese developer of renewable-energy power plants. This initial order is part of a partnership agreement between the two companies.

“We are impressed by the ultra-high efficiency of Concentrix technology and by the experience that Soitec has amassed through extensive research and development work, dating back to the technology’s origin at Fraunhofer ISE,” said Ma Wenxing, managing director at Focusic.

“The renewable-energy market in China presents exciting prospects for our CPV technology, and we are delighted to seize this opportunity together with Focusic,” said Hansjörg Lerchenmüller, senior vice president, customer group for Soitec’s Solar Energy Business Unit.

Soitec’s equipment will be used to build a 3-megawatt (MW) CPV solar power plant in Hami, a city on the edge of the Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang province. Soitec’s CPV technology is ideally suited for installations in ecologically sensitive desert areas because the land does not need to be graded and the indigenous plant life is not negatively impacted by shading. In addition, Concentrix systems do not require water for cooling.

With its power-generating module efficiency of up to 30 percent and low installation and maintenance costs, CPV technology is the most cost-efficient solution for high-volume power generation in regions with high direct normal irradiance (DNI). China contains an estimated 500,000 square miles of area with high DNI ratings as well as an enormous and growing demand for energy.

Source: Soitec

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