SolFocus Expands in Greece

SolFocus of Mountain View, Calif., has signed an agreement to expand its installation of solar concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology in Greece. The contract follows the November 2008 announcement of a 1.6-MW-peak (MWp) deployment between SolFocus and Samaras Group and increases the project’s production capacity to 10 MWp, in recognition of the region’s financial and energy-generation advantages. The enterprise is a joint effort between SolFocus, Samaras Group and Concept, the latter’s engineering company. Over the past four months, the partners have investigated several sites and have begun engineering plans. The installation, spanning multiple locations, will use the SolFocus 1100S system, which was launched in November 2008 and offers conversion efficiencies that the company says typically are 30 to 50 percent greater than those of traditional photovoltaic panels. “2009 is truly the beginning of CPV commercialization, and Greece is a front-runner. We expect that CPV will follow a similar growth path in other high-sun regions over the next several years,” said Mark Crowley, CEO and president of SolFocus.