HSUN® products include the following components:
- Photovoltaic Assembly: XModules® - Si54 integrating high efficiency cells with Laser Grooved Buried Contact
- technology and optics LaserSun®;
- Tracking unit WS Horizon® CPV: high-precision and highly reliable 2 axis tracker with distributed architecture
- Robotic control SunGravityControl® CPV: remotely controlled - high precision robotics and actuators
Products based on the HSUN® technology satisfy the following requirements:
Be competitive
The HSUN® products are economically more competitive than existing flat-plate photovoltaic technologies. Products are reliable both on the selection of components (cells, actuator type, optic material), and on the solutions developed and applied (receiver, tracker, robotic controller). HSUN® products are designed to produce electricity at a Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) over 20 years of 100 €/MWh.
GW Ready
The HSUN® products are designed to be industrially produced at the “GW scale”. The HSUN® products use components such as cells, optics, trackers etc. which are “GW ready”; components have the potential to be supplied or manufactured with a capacity of 10 GW/year in the next 5 years. The assembly of cells is “GW ready” since is performed fully automated pick-and-place machines from electronic assembly industry to guarantee GW production with six sigma quality. Trackers are “GW ready” since are manufactured and assembled with processes, materials and machines from automotive industry. Robotics are “GW ready” since are assembled using electric components produced in large volumes for electronic industries. Optics are “GW ready” since existing suppliers of certified aluminium foils produce 20 millions of square meters per year, already well above the GW threshold of 7 millions square meters per year.
High efficiency
HSUN® products use high efficiency cells with the following requirements: reliable and replaceable in the short term to allow integration of higher efficiency components over time. The LaserSun® optics with 95% reflection efficiency will be used for 25 years, due to a recorded degradation of reflection efficiency below 0.5%/year. The HSUN 10K - Si products integrate Silicon cells designed by WS Energia with 19% efficiency (Laser Grooved Buried Contact cells, LGBC, produced by NAREC on finger design from WS Energia).
Flexible
In HSUN® products, the cells can be easily replaced by higher efficiency cells, while optics, tracking and controllers are maintained. This flexibility allows the integration of more reliable, higher efficiency, better designed cells over the lifetime of the equipment. In the HSUN® 10K Si, the cost of replacement of cells every 5 years is within the usual maintenance costs.
Precise, reliable and environment friendly
HSUN® products use WS Horizon CPV solar trackers with 2 axis tracking on a distributed geometry to reach ±0.2 degrees of precision in 95% of the tracking area, a mean time between failure of 20 years, structure stiffness of 0.05º degrees and back slash of 0.1 degree. WS Horizon® CPV solar trackers have tracker uptime of 99% over the first 10 years and 98% over the 20 years operation. By using a distributed geometry, WS Horizon® CPV solar trackers require half the steel compared to single mast trackers and installation is performed with zero-concrete over land.
Efficient on global scale
The distributed architecture tracking with N-S main axis requires significantly less land since it efficiently uses the area without shadowing. HSUN® 10K Si products have an overall power and energy global efficiency of 0.22 MW/ hectare and 0.44 MWh/hectare, respectively. A regular 2 axis solar tracker with flat photovoltaic panel has an overall power and energy global efficiency of 0.14 MW/hectare and 0.28 MWh/hectare, respectively. HSUN® 10K Si products are 57% more efficient on the global scale than a regular 2 axis tracking.
