A Canada-based solar energy company has created a buzz among major players in the global industry with its revolutionary new solar module that integrates the principles of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology into a flat panel design without the need for expensive lenses or mirrors.
Morgan Solar Inc.’s Sun Simba High Concentration Photovoltaic (HCPV) solar panel uses a patented Light-guide Solar Optic (LSO) concentration matrix to trap and focus sunlight up to 1000 times onto a highly efficient photovoltaic cell attached at the optic’s centre. Made of a simple sheet of glass and acrylic, the LSO concentrator works like a magnifying glass and, unlike large-scale CPV systems, doesn’t require bulky sun-tracking systems.
Standard solar panels covert sunlight directly to electricity with a conversion efficiency of generally around 15 – 20 percent. CPV systems, by intensifying that sunlight, can push that efficiency up to around 43 percent. Morgan Solar’s design is the melding of the two systems into what it says is a scalable, low-cost solar panel.
The LSO system was invented by John Paul Morgan, an optical scientist who founded Morgan Solar in 2007 with his brother, Nicolas. So promising was the new technology that Asif Ansari, former CEO of solar thermal giant eSolar, joined the tiny company as CEO in 2010.
The global solar industry is a very competitive marketplace, but last month Morgan Solar announced USD $16.5 million in the first tranche of funding for development of the Sun Simba solar panel from some of the sector’s leading investors; including the Iberdrola Group, the world’s largest renewable energy company, and Nypro Inc., a USD $1.1 billion global contract manufacturer.
“The Morgan Solar approach to CPV provides, for the first time, an opportunity to deliver grid-competitive [energy] without subsidies, across global markets,” says Ansari. “Now – not five years from now – the Sun Simba generates extremely compelling project rates of return.”
