ASU tests for sunny solar future
March 24th, 2008, 4:17 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Ed Taylor
Arizona State University’s Photovoltaic Testing Lab has received an $800,000 grant through the Solar America Initiative to speed up the testing of solar energy modules. It marked the fifth grant ASU has received through the federal initiative, which aims to reduce to cost of solar energy to make it competitive with conventional energy by 2015.
The goal of the latest grant is to conduct reliability tests of concentrator photovoltaic modules, a type of solar device that is not as well developed and tested as other forms of solar energy.
The program will test modules provided by SolFocus of Mountain View, Calif. and Soliant Energy of Pasadena, Calif., providing data for them to certify their products and develop warranty information. The tests, which will take place at ASU Polytechnic campus in east Mesa, will subject the modules to extreme conditions to simulate what they’d experience during their operational lifetimes.
The east Mesa lab is one of the few in the world that can perform those types of tests, including simulating extreme temperatures, hail impact and high humidity, ASU said.
