Field experience with 3-sun mirror module systems

JX Crystals' 3-sun PV mirror modules have now been operating in four separate systems in the field for up to 2 years. Two post-mounted 2-axis tracking arrays of 12 modules each were installed at the Shanghai Flower Park in April of 2006. Then 672 modules were installed in a 100 kW array on N-S horizontal beam trackers at the Shanghai Flower Port in November of 2006. Finally, sets of 4 modules were installed on azimuth-tracking carousels on buildings at the Oak Ridge National Lab and at the U. of Nevada in Las Vegas in late 2007. All of these modules in each of these systems are still operating at their initial power ratings. No degradation in performance has been observed. The benefit of these 3-sun PV mirror modules is that they use 1/3 of the silicon single-crystal cell material in comparison to traditional planar modules. Since aluminum mirrors are much cheaper than high-purity single-crystal silicon-cells, these modules and systems should be much lower in cost when manufactured in high volume.