Energy Innovations receives prestigious Masdar City contract

PASADENA, USA: Energy Innovations Inc., manufacturer of high concentration solar modules and systems, was awarded a contract to install its high efficiency Sunflower system at Masdar City.

Located near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Masdar City is the world’s first carbon neutral, zero waste city powered entirely by renewable energy and is the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Masdar City is a model community aimed at complete sustainability and energy independence. It is planned to cover approximately 1,500 acres (6km2), house 50,000 people and will support 1,500 businesses.

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology will be located at Masdar with ties to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Cars are not allowed in the city so residence will use mass and personal transit. All energy will be generated from a variety of renewable sources.

“It is quite appropriate that a forward-looking city like Masdar should choose to install CPV technology,” said Joe Budano, Energy Innovations’ CEO.

“CPV brings great advantages over traditional PV and thin film and represents the future of solar in these high solar resource locations. We are proud to be chosen for this very important project and expect to demonstrate the value and robustness of our HCPV technology in this high radiation and high ambient temperature environment.”

Energy Innovation’s Sunflower Highly Concentrated PV (HCPV) technology is particularly well suited for high temperature conditions typically associated with high solar resource locations such as Masdar City.

Sunflower’s HCPV system uses triple junction cells which were originally designed to power satellites in the harsh environment of space. These cells are less affected by high ambient temperatures than comparable crystalline silicon PV or thin film modules.

In fact, typical PV modules can degrade 15-20 percent from their rated power in hot desert conditions. CPV modules, using heat tolerant triple junction cells, only lose only about 5 percent of their rated power in these same conditions. A module’s rated power is measured at 25 degrees Celsius, not at working temperatures. As a result, the Sunflower HCPV system will maintain its efficiency and output more energy in kWh than comparable PV or thin film modules in these sunny desert locations.

Energy Innovations participated in this international tender process which was sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co.(ADFEC) in conjunction with the Spanish Instituto de Sistemas Fotovoltaicos de Concentracion (ISFOC).

ISFOC is an important center of excellence for the CPV industry and has sponsored several research projects in the area of concentrated photovoltaics. ISFOC was instrumental in the construction of 3MW of CPV facilities in various locations in Spain.