Daido Steel Building Pilot Plant that Concentrates Solar Energy to Make Electricity

Daido Steel Co., a major Japanese special steel manufacturer, announced on July 15, 2008, its plan to build a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) power pilot plant with a rated capacity of 30 kilowatts, by December 2008. The CPV system generates power by rotating its panels to follow the sun, just like sunflowers do, and concentrating the sunlight onto highly efficient power cells using lenses.

With this pilot plant, located in the Aichi Rinku New Energy Feasibility Study Area in the city of Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Daido Steel plans to demonstrate the generation performance of several linked-up generation systems, as well as the feasibility of the long-term supply of power to an actual power-consuming area. This plant has the largest power generation capacity of any CPV system in Japan.

By concentrating sunlight onto power cells using lenses or concave mirrors, the system makes it possible to not only reduce the number of expensive power cells needed but also to improve generation efficiency, when certain types of power cells are incorporated. Because the solar panels are always turned exactly towards the sun, sunlight can be focused most efficiently onto the power cells, leading to an optimization of generation capacity.

This pilot project will be conducted for four years from 2009, subsidized by the Field Test Project on New Photovoltaic Power Generation Technology, one of the projects run by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

- Daido Steel Co. official website
http://www.daido.co.jp/english/index.html

Posted: 2009/01/25 6:00:12 AM