Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Heliodynamics' concentrated solar technology

HelioDynamics has been placed at the centre of plans by its new owner, Swiss renewable energy firm EnergyMixx AG, to meet the solar energy requirements from a portfolio of concessions covering more than 550MW of renewable energy.

HelioDynamics’ patented concentrated solar technology will initially focus on the Italian market where the EnergyMixx has a number of concessions totalling more than 100MW in the solar power production sector.

EnergyMixx says that over the next two years it is anticipating installing around 50MW of capacity using gallium arsenide cells – which have an efficiency range roughly double that of silicon photovoltaics – backed by HelioDynamics concentrated solar technology. EnergyMixx only recently lifted its stake in HelioDynamics from 30 per cent to 100 with the aim of boosting its solar engineering efforts and its competitive position in solar power generation.

According to Low Carbon Accelerator (LCA) which owned the first HelioDynamics stake, due to the related EnergyMixx industrialisation plan, HelioDynamics’ solar photovoltaic combined heat and power system (CHP) will benefit from a strong reduction in cost per MW putting the system amongst the most competitive solar power solutions in the market.

LCA says the system is easy to assemble, modular and scaleable and thus particularly suitable for both large power plants and stand alone solutions for private and commercial applications. Its systems are targeted at providing zero-carbon power and climate control systems for buildings.

If HelioDynamics manages to meet its development targets and launch the photovoltaic (PV) power generator by 2011, chief executive and co-founder, Graham Ford expects to open manufacturing plants in the UK and Italy, potentially taking the company’s headcount from 16 to over 300 over the next two to three years.

“We need to be brave and go forward,” said Ford who envisages a 25 per cent UK, 75 per cent Italy split for the manufacturing. There are hundreds of megawatts of concessions to be fulfilled. We are talking about investing several million Euros to construct and install and commission. We are not trying to create inherently new processes so there’s nothing to stop us going into high volume manufacturing.

“However, to meet all the concessions we may need to raise in excess of €1 billion, which we could do through equity and debt. There is no shortage of money, you just need the right quality deals backed by quality management.

“There is a technology roadmap for it and we are looking for industrial partners. The idea is to have a gigawatt power plant producing energy from the sun.”

Ford points to Spain, which has seen mass investment in solar technology off the back of government renewables incentives, the likes of which are appearing in Italy and which EnergyMixx is deeply involved with.

“If you look at the deal flow of solar projects in Spain over the last few years there have been plenty of a comparable size,” said Ford. “We’re doing it in Italy, though we are making sure its economically viable for the country. We are using Italian sunshine with Italian labour to produce Italian electricity.”

Ford believes that as well as adding value to EnergyMixx’s colar concessions in Italy, HelioDynamics will provide additional revenues through its pipeline of orders and leads.

This pipeline of work includes a solar air conditioning system due to be installed for trials at Albuquerque Airport, New Mexico, later this year. While the vast building size of most airports suits HelioDynamics’ roof-based structures, Ford believes this particular technology avenue has the most potential in the Middle East.

“In some parts of the Gulf air conditioning accounts for close to 80 per cent of energy requirements and we could potentially meet almost the entire air conditioning load,” said Ford. “That’s a reduction in energy consumption of 80 per cent in some areas.”

HelioDynamics’ technology streams are based on using groups of mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight upwards to a light-absorbing receiver of photovoltaic cells. By rotating together, tracking the sun and keeping a tight focus on the stationary receiver, the mirrors greatly increase the output of the cells and dramatically reduce the need for silicon as a prime photovoltaic component.