Concentrix, Abenoga connect solar plant to Spanish grid

Concentrix Solar and Abengoa Solar said today they've connected a 2-megawatt solar power plant to the public utility grid under Spain's feed-in tariff law.

The power station in Sanlúcar la Mayor near Seville is part of a larger project that by 2013 is expected to supply 300 MW and supply 153,000 homes in the Seville region.

The companies say the plant is the first to combine silicon flat modules and concentrator PV modules mounted on tracking systems.

Abengoa Solar is a unit of engineering and process management company Abengoa.

Concentrix Solar spun out in 2005 from the Freiburg, Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, which in September said its researchers have been able to boost solar efficiency to a record level of 39.7 percent for a III-V multi-junction crystalline silicon cell (see German solar reaches 40-percent efficiency). 

Concentrix uses Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight 500 times and focused onto small, highly-efficient solar cells.

The company built a 25-MW automated production line into production for its new module technology. The modules are also installed in a demonstration plant in Altomonte, Italy. The modules are being installed in the 500-kilowatt ISFOC project in Puertollano, Spain.