CPV News Brief 25 June – 8 July 2014
CPV market CAGR to hit 34% by 2018 says report
Analysts at Sandle Research forecast that the global solar CPV market will grow at a CAGR of 34.1 percent over the period 2013-2018. According to the report, one of the major drivers in this market is the reduction in average installation prices of solar CPV systems.
The major focus of solar CPV companies across the world is to increase the efficiency of CPV systems, which will help to reduce the overall system costs, notes Sandle Research. The efficiency of CPV modules is around 30 percent, which is already higher than solar PV and CSP technologies. However, there is still a huge scope for improvement to further reduce the overall cost. With increased efficiency and declining overall costs, solar CPV technology will shortly achieve grid parity in many countries across the world.
With solar CPV manufacturing companies achieving economies of scale and obtaining government support, the average prices of these systems are declining. This has resulted in solar CPV systems becoming affordable, leading to an increase in the number of installations across the world. However, the pick-up of the CPV technology is still slow compared to its sister PV and thin film solar segments.
The solar CPV installations in recent years have increased in Spain, the US, Australia, China, and India, which receive high solar radiation. Solar CPV is a relatively immature technology compared to other PV technologies and an increase in concentration and efficiency will lead to its LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) reduction.
It is expected to gain lower LCOE than PV technologies in the forecast period. Moreover, lower land requirements for solar CPV provide an advantage compared to PV, said the report statement.