Mastering reliability and qualifying new opportunities identified as key themes as the public gets first details of PV Insider's CPV USA 2012 Summit, announced for 15-16 October in San Jose, California.

These topics reflect current industry trends, as a number of concentrated photovoltaic companies have recently announced plans to expand into new markets. SolFocus and Arima have made moves into Mexico, Skyline Solar have entered the Latin American market, Soitec have secured finance for a 50MW plant in South Africa and others have progressed in China, Italy and France.

In the United States, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) reported in January that the US installed nearly 2GW of PV in 2011, and that a substantial total of 10 CPV projects came online. The 30MW Alamosa project, using Amonix modules, also came into operation in May.

Despite all of this progress, PV companies around the world have been struggling against price pressure and consolidation. CPV in particular has been battling to break its catch-22: bigger projects mean higher volumes and lower costs, yet the technology has to first get proven on a smaller scale, meaning higher cost and lower volumes. Track record and bankability are still challenges that improved reliability will overcome.

The announcement of the 4th Concentrated Photovoltaic Summit USA (15-16 October, San Jose) has brought an agenda that looks to address these challenges in detail. Over two days, CPV USA 2012 will focus on building a winning CPV strategy for proven reliability and qualified opportunities to generate real business.

A first look at the speaker list for the conference reveals a strong line-up of CPV system developers, with SolFocus, Soitec, Amonix, Abengoa Solar, SunPower and Semprius among the companies represented. In addition, delegates will hear from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NREL, together with utilities Salt River Project, SMUD, IID and Tuscon Electric Power.

More information is available on the conference website – www.pv-insider.com/cpv and from organizer Matt Carr by e-mail: matt@pv-insider.com