Concentrated Photovoltaics
Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar cells utilize inexpensive optics to concentrate sunlight onto small area photovoltaic chips; this improves the conversion efficiency and reduces the area of silicon or other expensive semiconductor materials used in the manufacture of CPV modules by a factor of 100 or more. However, concentrators need additional expensive equipment that is required to track the position of the sun in sky to within the accuracy of one degree.