Shareholdings of Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer Venture
Concentrix Solar GmbH
The Company
Concentrix Solar GmbH was founded in 2005 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The company is based in Freiburg im Breisgau. In December 2009, Concentrix Solar joined the Soitec Group.
Concentrix Solar further developed the concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology FLATCON generated from many years of research work at Fraunhofer ISE, brought the technology from the laboratory to market-ready products and advanced it into series production. Under the designation FLATCON, Concentrix Solar offers concentrator photovoltaic power plants for countries with high direct insolation. In February 2008, the subsidiary Concentrix Iberia was founded to reach the Spanish and Portuguese market.
From September 2006 until August 2008, Concentrix Solar produced concentrator modules on pilot scale. Since September 2008, the Concentrix Solar CPV modules have been manufactured on a fully-automated industrial production line.
The Services
Solar Power Plants from Concentrix Solar
Concentrix Solar offers concentrator photovoltaic power plants for sunny locations with high direct normal irradiation (DNI). The modules of Concentrix Solar are certified according to the international IEC 62108 standard and in Spain, the systems have been approved after type testing.
FLATCON power plants are suitable for implementation in countries with high direct solar irradiation. There, they are an excellent alternative to conventional photovoltaic or solar thermal power plants. With various advantages:
- Economically reasonable operation within a large power range from 1-100 MW
- High module and system efficiencies, thus, low demand for land
- Lower electricity production costs at locations with high DNI compared to conventional solar power plants
Concentrator Photovoltaic Technology
The concentrator photovoltaic technology (CPV) is a comparatively young technology. At present, the market is primarily dominated by conventional photovoltaic systems from silicon.
Concentrator photovoltaic systems use concentrating optics such as lenses or mirrors for bundling the sunlight and focus the light by means of the concentrating optics on small solar cells which directly convert the sunlight into electricity.
The advantage: By concentrating the sunlight, the required active area of solar cells may be reduced to a fraction of conventional solar modules. This enables the use of higher quality solar cells with higher efficiency.
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