Amonix Develops Concentrated Photovoltaic
Amonix receives a US$129 Million in venture funding to develop Concentrated Photovoltaic Solar Panels.
Another acronym comes along in the solar industry for us to remember. This time it is CPV which stands for Concentrated Photo Voltaic. The difference here between the more common Photovoltaic (PV) is the the addition of a lens in front of the solar cell. This acts a bit like a magnifying glass to focus the solar energy on the cell, it gets Concentrated.
The added factor of the Amonix units being steerable keeps them at the optimum angle to capture more of the suns energy than fixed solar panels. Efficiency of the units comes out at around 25% of the suns energy converted in to usable electricity. The actual individual cells themselves can capture 39% of sunlight. The solar array has an output of around 72 kilowatts and all this is done using a much smaller area than a solar farm using just standard photovoltaic panels.
Just like cooking eggs, there is more than one way to do it. Capturing solar energy is possible in many forms to suit many purposes. The Amonix fills a gap for utilizing a much smaller area that produces more power.
Plans as afoot for Amonix to build solar farms in the South West USA capable of producing up to 20 megawatts of energy
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