Central Utilities

A recent independent market report estimates that the concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) segment of the total solar market will be about 6GW by 2016. However, XE sees far greater growth potential for this market segment. In our view the impending irreversible decline in fossil fuel supplies, the increasingly apparent need for energy security, concerns about global warming, and the enormous scale of our energy needs are going to force major policy changes in favor of high efficiency renewable power systems, of which CPV is one of the few viable alternatives. Such CPV power plants are best deployed in grid-connected desert central utilities. Moreover, as conversion efficiency of CPV materials continue to rise, as concentrators with lower optical losses are developed, and as water becomes recognized as an increasingly scarce and vital natural resource, XE also foresees CPV becoming more favored over certain types of concentrating solar thermal (CST) power plants in certain desert locations. The aforementioned report estimates that the CST segment of the total solar market to be about 12GW by 2016.