Project

The scientific evidence for man-made changes in the earth’s climate as a result of greenhouse gas emissions (in particular CO₂) is now generally accepted. In January ’07, the European Commission recommended new targets to cut their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from the 1990 level by 2020 with the ambition to go to a 30% cut if other non-EU states are prepared to collaborate.

Photovoltaic solar energy (PV) is an essential component in the strategy to meet the ambitious EU 2020 targets. Of all PV technologies, photovoltaic systems based on concentration (CPV) are closest to grid parity in terms of electricity costs.

For CPV, the major barriers for large-scale application are productivity, integration and cost optimization issues.

This project addresses all these issues. CPV4ALL will demonstrate a novel CPV concept that is highly efficient, suited for mass production, with potential to achieve electricity costs beyond grid parity and applicable in agricultural, industrial and residential areas. The project will also demonstrate high-throughput manufacturing processes for system components and pilot lines for module assembly of the CPV concept so large scale replication in 2018 is possible.