The 25 kilowatt SolarRow: a building block for utility-scale concentrator systems

In the early 1990s, ENTECH developed a fourth-generation photovoltaic concentrator system, with technical and financial support by Sandia National Labs, the National Renewable Energy Lab, and the US Department of Energy. The fourth-generation system includes a mass-producible 21X line-focus concentrator module, a 72-module two-axis tracking array, and 12-VDC sun-tracking controls and drives. The new system, called SolarRow, represents an integrated, autonomous 25 kW array. In 1995, the first two utility-scale deployments of the SolarRow technology were implemented. A 100 kW solar power plant was deployed at CSW Solar Park near Ft. Davis, Texas. Another 100 kW solar power plant was deployed at TU Electric Energy Park in Dallas, Texas. Each of these power plants includes four SolarRows as the photovoltaic collector field. This paper describes the new SolarRow and presents its measured performance and energy economics