CPV solar farm

ZenithSolar, an Israeli start-up company, has recently launched its first 'solar farm' near Tel Aviv, based on concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems developed by Prof David Faiman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

Faiman, who is chairman of the Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics at BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, believes that the system will harvest more than 70 per cent of incoming solar energy (as compared to industry norms of between 10 per cent and 40 per cent).

The concept of CPV systems is to use low-cost optics to increase the light incident onto high-efficiency semiconductor solar cells, thus reducing overall cost of the system while increasing energy output.

The ZenithSolar optical dish is based on a patented design, using multiple simple flat mirrors mounted on a plastic surface. The moulded plastic surface, divided into four quadrants, is fixed onto a rigid, high-precision metal frame assembled onto an azimuth elevation solar tracking system.