Harald Hauf has just created EHW Research, a young cleantech comapny based in Toulon. Specializing in photovoltaic, it has developed two products going to revolutionize the industry of production systems of solar energy. The Smart Power Box addresses the problems of energy losses related to partial shade, with different characteristics of the signs and effects of temperature. The Solari Catch Pot is a solar concentrator that reduces the “consumption” of silicon and significantly reduces the cost of installing the panels today. 

EWH RESEARCH

The core technology enabling the growth and success of the PV industry has long been based -almost exclusively- on cell making technology which continues to increase cell efficiency and thus reducing manufacturing cost. Still, from the start of the supply chain to the end, efficient electricity production depends on much more than only cell efficiency. Today’s prelevant cost KPI (key performance indicator) of €/Wp is a good measure of the PV market size, but is insufficient to measure the cost of electricity production. Ehw-Research predicts a paradigm shift where the PV industry will shift its focus from €/Wp towards the more significant indicator of electricity production in terms of €/kWh. All of Ehw-Research’s products increase the PV profitability in terms of €/kWh. PV product innovation has to constantly consider the new paradigm: kWp=Power, kWh=Money.

SMART POWER BOX

Largely independent from their Peak-Power (Wp), photovoltaic installations can differ dramatically in their electricity production (kWh); there is a nagging issue of inefficiency related to the installation itself: other than the typical consideration like climate, latitude, roof inclination and array orientation, the so-called mismatch losses need to be accounted for as well.

These losses are not of academic concern but constitute a problem to be solved, whereas partial shading represents the most common of mismatch losses (10% of shade may reduce more than 50% of an array’s power). Ehw enters the market with the first industrial solution, the Smart Power Box™.

The PV modules are hooked up individually into the Smart Power Box™, similar to today’s distribution boxes. The notion of string disappears.The Smart Power Box™ reconstitutes 80% of mismatch losses:

a) allows for installations at partially shaded sites

b) increases the annual yield of an in stallation

c) eliminates the need for engineering prior hook up (horizon masking, string assignment, temperature evaluation and module placement and sorting)

SOLAR CATCH POT

EHW Research developed another technology named Solari Catch Pot which is a solar concentrator that reduces the “consumption” of silicon and significantly reduces the cost of installing the panels today. Unlike other CPV technologies the Solar Catch Pot™ is a concentrator without tracking – PASSIVE CPV. Currently in prototype phase, in collaboration with the lab “SNC” of the university of Toulon/France this product will enter the market by 2009.

 Although the company do not reveal any details of this technology the Solar Catch Pot™ offers:

• PV module with 5 fold less silicon at equivalent annual yield (kWh)
• A massive reduction in module production cost
• No tracking, no lenses, no prisms, no Fresnel
• Quasi-independant from solar position
• Vertical and horizontal application without their typacal losses

EHW Research management team constitutes of veterans of the semiconductor and microelectronics industries. Recognized for its innovative products Ehw-Research enjoys wide support from government backed, public research and other institutions.EHW Research has recently primer competition Oséo Ministry of Research.