Page 79 - RSE - Results of the Apollon Project

RESuLtS OF thE APOLLON PROjECt ANd CONCENtRAtiNg PhOtOvOLtAiC PERSPECtivE

aforementioned components, at volumes required for the production of 5 MW of modules, led to estimating that
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a MBS module could have a cost that is 0.275 euros/W higher than simple mirror based modules. The differential
cost for the complete installed system expressed in euro/W is different, because higher effciency entails a lower
cost for other elements related to the installation (land, trackers, engineering, transportations, civil works, operation
& maintenance, cables). Assuming a linear proportionality between the aforementioned installation costs and the
system effciency, Table 13 provides a summary of the difference in the differential cost of the two CPV systems
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types. The analysis showed that the MBS system could have a cost that is 0.15 euros/W higher than the cost of
simple mirror based system.

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tABLE 13. Summary of the differential system cost analysis on a MBS TJ + Si based system (36% effciency) and a
MB TJ based system (32% effciency)

MBS System effciency (iii-v based tj/Si) Mirror-based System effciency (iii-v based tj)
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36% 32%
Additional Cost related to the additional components [€/W]: Additional Tracker Other Additional
Dichroic mirrors cost due to lower Costs due to lower
Silicon cells effciency value effciency value
Receivers for silicon cells [€/W] (land, civil works,
Cabling for receivers with silicon cells cables, etc.) [€/W]
Bypass diodes for Si cells
A 0.275 B 0.075 C 0.05
A-B-C=0.15 [€/W]

For MBS , the cost of the tracker has been assumed to be 0.6 euros/W and installation costs 0.4 euros/W.
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Considering a lower cost for the tracker and for the installation, the cost difference between the two CPV systems
types increases: compared to the confguration with only the TJ solar cells, MBS systems start being economically
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convenient when the costs for installation and tracker are higher than 2.5 euros/W, i.e. with system costs that are
too high to be attractive in the PV market. From a different point of view, if the cost of the installation was around 1
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euro/W, the difference between the MBS and TJ costs for the modules would be <0.11 euros/W.
Therefore, even without considering the additional complexity of the MBS with respect to the simple MB system,
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the second solution appears to be more competitive and this is the reason why it has been selected to be developed
in the second phase of the project.

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