Colorado Concentrated Photovoltaic Project

The US Cogentrix Energy Company, which is committed to the development of coal, natural gas, hydroelectric and solar energy, announced on August 11, 2010 that it will enter into an agreement with the utility Xcel Energy, Inc. from the 30MW Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) facility in Colorado. Supply its electricity.

Amonix, a producer of CPV facilities, will provide equipment for the project. The CPV facility will be completed within 2 years and the CPV system will become the world's largest concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) project.

The CPV facility uses mirrors to collect light onto a small silicon cell, which usually has higher efficiency and operates in a hot environment. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of this Amonix module is about 25%.

The shortage of silicon during 2005~2008 has made great progress in CPV. However, as the price of silicon fell, CPV lost its appeal. The increased cost of adding aggregators makes them less cost-competitive than traditional photovoltaics. For this reason, only about 30 MW of CPV have hitherto been around the world.

The Cogentrix Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) facility will be located in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, covering approximately 225 acres, adjacent to Xcel Energy's existing power transmission system.