JX Crystals 

JX Crystals is manufacturing and installing low cost 3Sun mirror modules in China. A 100kW demonstration is under construction in Shanghai with an additional 300kW now on order.

  The 3Sun product lowers the cost of PV by replacing 2/3 of the expensive Silicon solar cells in a module with low cost metal mirrors. Performance is equivalent to conventional single crystal silicon modules at half the cost.

 

The pictures below show the 100kW system in operation on a Shanghai rooftop and some other 3Sun mirror module demonstrations in Shanghai China, Albuquerque NM, Pasadena CA and Issaquah WA using 2-axis and novel 1-axis Carousel solar trackers. 

 

3Sun modules are scheduled for UL and IEC qualification testing during the 1st QTR of 2008.

 

 

The 100kW array is a rooftop mounted horizontal beam tracking system with 672 3Sun Mirror Modules. The tracker was designed and built by Array Technology in Albuquerque, NM to fit onto building integrated support posts. The array is wired to a single grid-tied SMA inverter.

 

A 4kW 3Sun mirror module array in Shanghai, mounted on 2 Wattsun AZ-225 2-Axis Trackers, has been running since Apr'06.

Module comparisons on a 2-axis tracker in Albuquerque confirmed a PTC mirror module output of 150 Watts.  

A novel 1-axis Carousel tracker demonstrator has been operating continuously on a Pasadena rooftop since Jul'05.

A 2nd generation Carousel design is now in Beta Site Testing with 3 Sun Mirror Modules and conventional flat plate modules. 

 

JX Crystals is also developing a High Efficiency 500 Sun product that uses Cassegrainian optics to split the solar spectrum into high and low energy bands. Dual Junction III-V GaInP/GaAs solar cells collect the high band energy at the focal point of a cold mirror reflector on the secondary optic,  while JXC GaSb cells collect the low band energy transmitting through the cold mirror. Engineering prototypes are pictured below. Current development efforts are focused on design for low cost manufacturing and supply chain management.

 

500 Sun PV prototypes , On-Sun at JX Crystals in Issaquah, WA. Early prototypes have measured 32% Efficiency.