Final Project Report: Improving Cost, Reliability and Grid Integration of High-Concentration Photovoltaic Systems

Consistent with the California Solar Initiative (CSI) mandate for Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D), this project's objective was to provide technology and knowledge advancements enabling California to deploy a high percentage of ultra clean, secure and reliable solar electric generation at the lowest possible cost. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) funded a team led by Amonix for the project entitled 'Improving Cost, Reliability and Grid Integration of High Concentration Photovoltaic Systems.' The Amonix High Concentration Photovoltaic systems, often called Concentrator PV or simply CPV, used lenses to focus 500 times incident sunlight onto small, highly efficient PV cells. As an emerging technology in solar markets, CPV is well suited for large multi-MW solar projects. Project members included utility systems research engineers from UCI's Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) and reliability scientists and engineers from NREL and Amonix. The project agreement was signed on January 1, 2011 and task work was completed on December 31, 2013.