Through a licensing agreement with Boeing, SES has acquired the sole rights to develop, manufacture and deploy the HCPV product globally.
SES will lead the commercialization process, with Boeing providing technical program development and engineering expertise under a contracting partnership. Tessera Solar, an SES affiliate, will be responsible for development, construction and operation of solar power facilities using the XR700.
Boeing began developing the XR700 technology in 2007 in collaboration with the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies program. The technology development phase is expected to continue for the next two years before achieving commercial-scale deployment in 2012.
The XR700 technology uses a non-imaging optical system to concentrate sunlight by a factor of 700 onto triple-junction solar cells. The cells are supplied by Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab.
Boeing is in the development and construction phase of a 100kW facility at California State University, Northridge, using the HCPV solar power technology. Boeing and its subcontractors also have completed the development of an automated 2MW per year production factory in Detroit that is producing and assembling the solar arrays for the Northridge solar facility. Installation of the solar arrays at the Northridge facility is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2010, with the solar facility expected to be operational during the third quarter.
