Solar's Next Level (Photovoltaic Thermal - PVT)

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19442&hed=Solar's+Next+Level

Ami Elazari has been a solar freak for decades. The 56-year-old computer and communications engineer outfitted his house in 1991 with a photovoltaic thermal (PVT) energy system.

PVT is a combination of two technologies—photovoltaic panels that produce direct electricity from silicon and domestic hot water collectors—combined into a single flat-plate collector.

Over the past few years, the founder and CEO of Millennium Electric has installed his company’s patented PVT system for small-scale projects in homes, hotels, hospitals, and factories in Israel, Singapore, Italy, and Germany. And now he hopes to try the technology out on a far larger scale.

In late August, Millennium signed an agreement for the construction of a 20-megawatt PVT power plant in South Korea’s Sinan province with a subsidiary of the Korea Group, which is now in the process of building a 17-megawatt photovoltaic power plant where the PVT plant will go up.

<more>