CPV Company Amonix Claims New Solar Module Efficiency Record

Retirado do site da empresa Amonix: 

"Seal Beach, CA – October 30, 2012 – Amonix Inc., the leading designer and manufacturer of concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems, announced that they have successfully converted more than one third of direct sunlight into electricity. In May of this year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) confirmed an outdoor operating efficiency rating of 33.5% for an Amonix module, breaking the previous 30.3% record also held by Amonix. Over several days of on-sun testing conducted by NREL, the module efficiency peaked at 34.2%. This is the highest efficiency ever reported under real-world, operating conditions for a solar PV module.

Three of the six Amonix 7700 CPV Solar Systems at the Southern Nevada Water Authority (source)

Cogenra Solar® - Solar Cogeneration

"According to "Residential Combined Heat and Power," a new study by Pike Research, the market for residential combined heat and power (resCHP) systems – defined as small, distributed energy generation systems that produce electricity for residences while also capturing heat that would otherwise be treated as waste – is still very small, but growing rapidly.

Cogenra is a CPV company at heart (...) but its technology captures the “waste” heat and uses it to produce hot water on its installations.  The company boasts Facebook as one of its first clients.  (...) the company is now looking to use the heat for solar cooling.

«Besides being more efficient than the traditional power grid and easier to build than conventional power stations, resCHP systems have the additional benefit of producing thermal energy that can be used as heat, converted to electricity, or converted to cooling when coupled with an adsorption chiller,» said research director Kerry-Ann Adamson."¹   

Cogenra Solar® presentation video (Youtube)

How to Make Renewable Energy Competitive

"Renewable energy needs help. Technological innovation has significantly reduced the cost of solar panels, wind turbines and other equipment, but renewable energy still needs serious subsidies to compete with conventional energy. Today, help comes mostly in the form of federal tax breaks.

These tax incentives, and the Congressional battle over extending them for wind projects beyond the end of this year, mean that other, more powerful policies to promote renewables are not getting the attention they deserve. If renewable energy is going to become fully competitive and a significant source of energy in the United States, then further technological innovation must be accompanied by financial innovation so that clean energy sources gain access to the same low-cost capital that traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas enjoy.