Power for 4,000 homes

Boeing has signed a contract to provide 600,000 solar concentrator cells to SolFocus, a California-based renewable energy company that is developing renewable terrestrial energy sources.

Under the 12-month contract from SolFocus, of Palo Alto, California, Spectrolab will build and deliver 600,000 solar concentrator cells that will be used to convert the sun's rays into electricity for homes and businesses.

According to Boeing, the cells produced for SolFocus will be capable of generating more than 10 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 4,000 homes. With the average solar cell efficiency above 35 percent at concentration, Spectrolab's concentrator photovoltaic cells generate electricity at a rate that can be more economical than electricity generated from conventional, flat panel photovoltaic systems.

A significant advantage of concentrator systems is that fewer solar cells are required to achieve a specific power output, thus replacing large areas of semiconductor materials with relatively inexpensive optics that provide optical concentration.