The Boeing CPV system has been developed as a jointly funded effort between the Boeing companies,
its industrial partners and the Department of Energy. As with all commercial solar systems the
key driver of success is a production cost which is competitive with existing power sources. In this
paper we describe an approach for driving the near term cost and LCOE (levelized cost of energy) of
less than $0.10 per kWh with growth opportunities down to $0.07 per kWh. This objective is
achievable through a combination of existing high performance optics, the future availability of
+40% to 50% conversion efficient multi-junction cells, low cost design tailored to high speed and
low cost manufacturing, field assembly, and low cost trackers.
The DoE funded Solar Energy Technology Program
(SETP) within the Research and Technology division of
The Boeing Company has been operating successfully
since March 2007. June 2010 marks the close of the
partnership with production and installation completion of
a 100kW power plant at California State University at
Northridge (CSUN). The XR700 Proof of Manufacturing
(POM) design, fully automated manufacturing operation
and power plant installation are discussed and evaluated.
The completion of the CSUN power plant represents a
critical milestone in the commercial development and
deployment of the XR optics-based CPV power solution.
The Boeing Company Phantom Works has
developed three different prototype photovoltaic
concentrator arrays since March 2007. Identified as
Prototype A, B and C, the experimentally proven technical
characteristics of each design are presented. The
concentrator designs utilize a 1 cm2 multi-junction solar
cell assembly in conjunction with SMS non-imaging optical
designs [1, 2] manufactured with low-cost mass-producible
technologies. Prototype A is an on-axis XR optical
concentrator with a 733x geometrical concentration
demonstrating a ± 1.73° acceptance angle and 23.7%
conversion efficiency. Prototype B is an off-axis free-form
XR optical concentrator with a 810x geometrical
concentration demonstrating a ± 1.32° acceptance angle
and 25.3% conversion efficiency. Prototype C is the most
recent off-axis free-form XR optical concentrator with a
801x geometrical concentration and a theoretical ±1.80°
acceptance angle demonstrating a conversion efficiency
greater than 27.0%. Prototype C is also the basis for the
Boeing Proof of Design (POD) module, demonstrating an
acceptance angle of ±1.48° and a conversion efficiency of
29.4% (as of May 8, 2009). Manufacturability has been
paramount during the design process, resulting in high
performance concentrating photovoltaic modules using
production quality components.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.