Concentrator photovoltaics

Concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) (also known as concentrating photovoltaics or concentration photovoltaics) is a <a href="/facts/Photovoltaic/5Xefaayl">photovoltaic</a> technology that generates electricity from sunlight. Unlike conventional <a href="/facts/Photovoltaic_system/rD4rcJB8">photovoltaic systems</a>, it uses <a href="/facts/Lens_(optics)/ejlH6n5c">lenses</a> or <a href="/facts/Curved_mirror/X1c0aVmK">curved mirrors</a> to focus sunlight onto small, highly efficient, <a href="/facts/Multi-junction/hw0qSrCr">multi-junction</a> (MJ) <a href="/facts/Solar_cells/3L814UCC">solar cells</a>. In addition, CPV systems often use <a href="/facts/Solar_tracker/qtev7xWx">solar trackers</a> and sometimes a cooling system to further increase their efficiency.: 30 
Systems using high-concentration photovoltaics (HCPV) possess the highest efficiency of all existing PV technologies, achieving near 40% for production modules and 30% for systems.: 5  They enable a smaller photovoltaic array that has the potential to reduce land use, waste heat and material, and <a href="/facts/Balance_of_system/6Wxulbl4">balance of system</a> costs. The rate of annual CPV installations peaked in 2012 and has fallen to near zero since 2018 with the faster price drop in <a href="/facts/Crystalline_silicon/nvx05hmr">crystalline silicon</a> photovoltaics.: 24  In 2016, cumulative CPV installations reached 350 <a href="/facts/Megawatt/VK8oqRrm">megawatts</a> (MW), less than 0.2% of the global installed capacity of 230,000 MW that year.: 10 : 5 : 21 
HCPV directly competes with <a href="/facts/Concentrated_solar_power/VdH6Cyn1">concentrated solar power</a> (CSP) as both technologies are suited best for areas with high direct normal <a href="/facts/Insolation/SI26I7aD">irradiance</a>, which are also known as the <a href="/facts/Sun_Belt/6zBneV5F">Sun Belt</a> region in the United States and the <a href="/facts/Golden_Banana/9VpccnQP">Golden Banana</a> in Southern Europe.: 26  CPV and CSP are often confused with one another, despite being intrinsically different technologies from the start: CPV uses the <a href="/facts/Photovoltaic_effect/huqzdkH2">photovoltaic effect</a> to directly generate electricity from sunlight, while CSP – often called concentrated solar thermal – uses the heat from the sun's radiation in order to make steam to drive a turbine, that then produces electricity using a <a href="/facts/Electric_generator/5sATsUGX">generator</a>. As of 2012<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Concentrator_photovoltaics&action=edit">[update]</a>, CSP was <a href="/facts/Concentrated_solar_power/VdH6Cyn1">more common</a> than CPV.

Concentrator photovoltaics open-in-new

Concentrator photovoltaics