International Conference on Solar Concentrators for the Generation of Electricity or Hydrogen: Book of Abstracts

The International Conference on Solar Concentrators for the Generation of Electricity or Hydrogen provides an opportunity to learn about current significant research on solar concentrators for generating electricity or hydrogen. The conference will emphasize in-depth technical discussions of recent achievements in technologies that convert concentrated solar radiation to electricity or hydrogen,with primary emphasis on photovoltaic (PV) technologies. Very high-efficiency solar cells-above 37%-were recently developed, and are now widely used for powering satellites. This development demands that we take a fresh look at the potential of solar concentrators for generating low-cost electricity or hydrogen. Solar electric concentrators could dramatically overtake other PV technologies inthe electric utility marketplace because of the low capital cost of concentrator manufacturing facilities and the larger module size of concentrators. Concentrating solar energy also has advantages for the solar generation of hydrogen. Around the world, researchers and engineers are developing solar concentrator technologies for entry into the electricity generation market and several haveexplored the use of concentrators for hydrogen production. The last conference on the subject of solar electric concentrators was held in November of 2003 and proved to be an important opportunity for researchers and developers to share new and crucial information that is helping to stimulate projects in their countries.