DEGERenergie is stopping the production of its concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) tracking systems as it says "CPV is unprofitable in the foreseeable future" – analyst questions too-optimistic business plan.
"The increased yield which can be achieved with concentrator technology bears no reasonable proportion to the additional expenditure and does not justify the high development effort," says Michael Heck, Vice President Sales & Marketing at DEGERenergie.
He adds that solar CPV modules has not really proceeded beyond the prototype stage, and that mass production is unlikely:
"A profitable business with these systems is unlikely in the foreseeable future. We will keep on concentrating on the optimisation of our systems on the basis of conventional photovoltaic technology. For this purpose DEGERenergie has allocated a research budget of €750.000 for the next 18 months."
Technology or business model?
Renewable Energy Focus has been told by an industry analyst that: "The points [Heck] made are actually not far off of the mark. However I think that this is more about the company's initially too-optimistic entry, than it is about CPV."
