米国立再生可能エネルギー研究所（NREL）、CPV 集光型太陽光発電システム AMONIX 7700の劇的な進化をアピール: ソフトエネルギー

米国立再生可能エネルギー研究所（NREL）、CPV 集光型太陽光発電システム AMONIX 7700の劇的な進化をアピール

　以前日本との共同研究でも話題になった米国立再生可能エネルギー研究所（NREL）、CPV 集光型太陽光発電システム。ガリウム化合物のマルチジャンクションで40%を超える高い効率の太陽光発電素子に500倍のレンズで集光し発電するというシステムでした。

・産業技術総合研究所、米国立再生可能エネルギー研究所（NREL）と共同で、集光型太陽光発電システムの発電性能の検証実験へ-----ソフトエネルギー、2010/07/01

　今回、NRELは、AMONIX 7700という具体的な製品名をあげて以下のようなアナウンスを行いました。

「今回開発した集光型太陽光発電システムは、ガス発電と競合できる価格で発電を行うことができる」　

　最大のポイントは、まさに発電コスト。一般的な太陽光発電に対して半分のコストで可能という展望を明らかにしました。具体的な数字は、1Wあたり1ドル以下の導入コストです。
　AMONIX 7700の１基の大きさは、77x 49　フィート（23.1*14.7m)で53kWp、太陽の方向を自動で追尾することができます。
CPV=Concentrated Photovoltaic 集光型太陽光発電システムは、実用へと大きな歩みを進めることができそうです。

プレスリリース / National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) ,February 16, 2011
・Super-Efficient Cells Key to Low-Cost Solar Power

-----image(”The Amonix 7700 Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Solar Power Generators are showcasing reliability and undergoing validation-of-performance measurements at the SolarTAC facility in Aurora, Colo.
Credit: Dennis Schroeder”) : 同リリースより

"Thinking big while focusing on small, a solar company and a national energy lab combined talents to develop a solar power concentrator that generates electricity at prices competitive with natural gas.

The Amonix 7700 Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Solar Power Generator, developed by Amonix and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is the size of an IMAX screen but costs much less than comparable generators, partly because of the efficiency of its small solar cells. It delivers more "energy per acre" than anything yet available in the solar energy world.

The public-private partnership won a 2010 R&D 100 award at the annual event honoring the greatest breakthroughs in technology, often called "The Oscars of Invention."

NREL's partnerships with industry, such as this one with Amonix, are key to reaching aggressive White House goals including lowering solar energy's installed cost to $1 a watt, which would make America a leader in renewable energy.
.........
The 7700 uses acrylic Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight up to 500 times its usual intensity and direct it onto 7,560 tiny, highly efficient multi-junction PV cells.

The cells, originally developed by NREL scientists, can convert 41.6 percent of the sunlight that shines on them into usable electricity in a laboratory setting, a world record. Production cells never work quite as well as cells produced in the lab. But the multi-junction cells on the Amonix 7700 are achieving 31 percent efficiency at the module level and 27 percent at the system level in the field, the highest ever achieved for an operating CPV concentrator.

That unprecedented efficiency opened the door to reducing costs and reducing land use - both key for solar electricity to reach cost-parity with fossil fuels.
........... "

" The Amonix 7700 CPV solar power system is designed specifically for utility-scale deployment. At 77' x 49', it is the world's largest pedestal-mounted solar system. Powered by high-efficiency multijunction solar cells, the Amonix 7700 produces 53 kW AC power output.

The CPV solar system comprised of seven proprietary patented MegaModulesR utilizes dual-axis tracking and is the first photovoltaic system capable of successfully converting one-fourth of the sun's energy into useable electricity.

The Amonix 7700's concentrated photovoltaic cells use concentrator optics to reduce the amount of semiconductor energy required to produce electricity. In fact, the acrylic Fresnel lenses we utilize concentrate sunlight up to 500 times its usual intensity and direct it onto tiny, high-efficiency multijunction solar cells.

Thanks to our innovative and proven technology, Amonix solar systems outperform silicon solar cell-based technology while producing energy at a lower cost. "

・New Solar Panel Array Doubles the Energy and Halves the Cost of Traditional Solar-----Inhabitat,02/21/11

コメント続き
　最初、導入までにはまだ時間がかかるのねー、程度の情報かと思っていたら、、、、。まず、工事の速度に驚き！
　0.5MWのシステムが半日で終わる、、、、、。

1/2 a MegaWatt of Solar Power Installed in a Day!

(AmonixSolar,2011/02/15)