Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system maker Soitec of Bernin, France says that a group of investors – including a large European energy supplier, the largest Portuguese installer of electrical grid infrastructure, and the largest Portuguese Foundation – has completed financing and started construction of a 1.3MWp CPV solar power plant in Portugal. The plant is the first to be funded by the partnership, demonstrating the various stakeholders’ confidence in CPV technology and its ability to fulfill Portugal’s plans for generating cost-efficient renewable energy, says Soitec.
Financial stakeholders in the project include Enovos, Luxembourg’s main energy supplier (operating also in Germany, France and Belgium), and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (a Portuguese private institution of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education and science). The plant’s installation is being managed by EIP (Electricidade Industrial Portuguesa) while Luz-On is the project developer and Soitec is supplying the CPV equipment ─ all being also shareholders of the project company.
The new CPV plant is being built in Alcoutim, in Southern Portugal, one of the sunniest regions in Europe. As one of 11 projects that the Portuguese government has authorized to spearhead the development of CPV in the country, it is intended to demonstrate the suitability of CPV technology. Electricity will be produced by 82 Soitec systems, using the firm’s Concentrix CPV dual-axis tracking technology. The CPV modules are reckoned to be more than twice as efficient as conventional photovoltaic modules.
Soitec says that the ability of CPV technology to operate without cooling water and withstand hot ambient temperatures while having minimal environmental impact make it suited to use in locations such as Portugal.
