Intelligence Brief
Interview with Global Sun Engineering's CEO Björn Eklöv
15 January 2009
"Our product in every situation is able to produce cheaper sun generated energy"
CPVToday.com Special
Swedish company Global Sun Engineering (GSE) is currently working on constructing small series solar concentrators.
These testing units are being delivered to partners and used for testing and evaluation.
On the current status, Björn Eklöv is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Global Sun Engineering told CPVToday.com: "During autumn 2008 four units were produced and delivered to different customers in Europe for test and evaluation. Test results so far show very good correlation between theoretical predictions and measured results."
According to the company, the first version to hit the market was Matarenki Light 2.6 which has a top effect of 260 W electricity and 2400 W heat. It is constantly tracking the sun, hence, the sun rays will always come in at a right angle towards the device.
Matarenki Light 5.3, the larger version, has more than twice as high electric top efficiency, 700 W and have 4200 W heat. Compared to fixed, non-focusing systems, the solution delivers electricity and heat at half the cost for the end customer, says the company. Also, the product is manufactured with light but strong materials which decreases the weight and enables easier logistics with flat parcels.
According to GSE, the core offering is a solar concentrator that the company offers in two sizes but the smaller size doesn't offer the same optimized $/kWh and will only be used for restrained installation conditions. The large model with working name, ML 1000, is a hybrid solar concentrator.
"We use 6x concentration and produce a top efficiency of 1,0 kW electric energy, and 4,0 kW heat energy," said Eklöv.
Recently, it was shared that the production lines have now established and it is running towards full scale marketing and production.
On capacity of production line and efficiency of the core offerings, Eklöv said, "We use selected suppliers for around 50 percent of the production of our concentrator. The tracker and the reflecting mirrors optics are produced in subsidiary company's founded and partly owned by GSE."
"During 2009 basic production are only for test and verification series, and no large investments in raising production capacity has been made. Certification and large scale production planning and investments are on the agenda for 2009. For 2010, the gathered collective capacity will be 1500 units, equivalent with 1,5 MW electricity and 6 MW heat, top efficiency. (Focus is on) Delivering on our core markets 3 GWh electricity and 12 GWh thermal energy," said Eklöv.
Specifically on Matarenki Light 5.3, Eklöv clarified that the company "actually had to revise that estimation, owners demand higher profit margins for the company and the market has seen decreasing prices somewhat faster than our earlier estimations."
He added the first commercial model will be optimised for up to 1 kW electricity and 4 kW heat.
"We are going to change towards saying that we cut the cost with 25 percent compared with other systems due to recent calculations and market analysis."
"As with all CPV systems one of the basic assumptions and technology justifications are that using cheap materials for concentrating the sun and decreasing the surface area covered by solar cells will make solar energy more cost effective. This is also the case with our product but in addition we take care of the heat that arises from concentration. Instead of just leading away the heat GSE has developed a receiver that leads cooling water in a loop behind the cells exchanging heat from cells to water which is then lead to either pool, house heating system tank or solar cooling equipment. Depending on the valuation of heat energy counter electric energy, the customer will have in average somewhere around 25 percent cheaper energy price/kWh than other solar technologies," explained Eklöv.
GSE's product is manufactured with light but strong materials which decrease the weight and enable easier logistics with flat parcels.
On how the same results in efficiency, Eklöv said the economical result is due to that the transport logistic and installation will be much easier.
"Practically it means that you can fill the containers or trucks by standard logistic loading procedures. When it comes to installation no cranes or other special equipment are necessary, instead two men are able to handle all parcels and install the unit on ground in one hour. This cuts installation costs in comparison with for instance mounting solar panels or solar collectors on roof tops," said Eklöv.
