The 2 MW Casaquemada power plant is jointly operated by Concentrix Solar and its partner Abengoa Solar and is made up of tracking systems with both silicon modules and concentrator photovoltaic systems, making it one of the first combination power plants of this kind. First generation FLATCON modules with a power of 48 watts are still in use at Casaquemada, although Concentrix Solar now produces newer and more efficient 75 W modules with an average efficiency of 27.2 %.
On clear days at the Casaquemada power plant, system efficiencies of 23% are consistently measured for the entire concentrator power plant under normal field operating conditions. Such a high efficiency was measured a year earlier at a demonstration system with a power of 5.4 kW in
“We are happy to be able to show that it is possible to reach these high efficiencies also in a larger installation and not only for a single test system”, says CTO Dr. Andreas Gombert. “At an efficiency of 23%, our concentrator systems produce almost exactly double the electrical power yield of conventional PV power plants”.
