Solar Cogeneration
Solar cogeneration optimizes the power of the sun by creating both electricity and hot water from a combined solar photovoltaic and thermal module. By combining proven photovoltaic and solar hot water systems, solar cogeneration offers the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly solar solution available. With over 30 customer projects, Cogenra is the most experienced developer of solar electric and hot water solutions in North America.
Watch this short video to learn how solar cogeneration can help the environment and your bottom line.
How Solar Cogeneration Works
Traditional solar photovoltaic (PV) systems convert approximately 15 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity and waste the remaining energy as heat. Solar cogeneration captures this waste heat and transforms it into real value. This high-value recovered waste heat addresses customer needs for hot water, heating and cooling. This not only generates further savings, it also cools the PV components, enhancing their efficiency, performance and lifetime.
Cogenra’s proprietary technology captures up to 75 percent of the sun’s delivered energy and converts it into both electricity and hot water within a single solar array. This approach yields five times the energy of traditional PV systems. To achieve these dramatic efficiency gains, Cogenra integrates silicon PV cells, concentrating planar optics with single-axis tracking and an innovative thermal transfer system in a low-cost and scalable design.
