Expectations on the very high concentration photovoltaics performance

Efficiencies above 40% have been achieved with MJ solar cells. Looking at the fast development, it is concluded that it is very likely that the target of 50% will eventually be achieved. They will be cost effective only if they operate under highly concentrated (HC) sunlight. The manufacturing of a concentrator has to be addressed at three levels of integration: module, array and PV subfield. All these aspects, together with the cell and the concentrator optics will be considered in this article. We shall try to substantiate why we think that HC photovoltaics (HCPV) has chances to become the cheapest of the PV technologies and beat the prevalent electricity generation technologies. But the way will be paved of challenges and the success is not granted.