The United States Air Force has signed a contract with the Schafer Corporation of Massachusetts to allow a test of concentrating solar power (CSP) at a Maui, Hawaii military site in an attempt to offset a military computer system’s power demand.

Officially titled the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract, the project is specifically focused on the expansion of CPV (Concentrated Photovoltaics) technology for land power generation developed in Air Force Space Research and Development programs.

In order to conduct the test, Rising Sun LLC will install a 100-kilowatt (kW) solar PV energy system around the Maui Research and Technology Park. The system will be manufactured by the EMCORE Corporation, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

CSP works by using an intricate system of lenses to concentrate the sunlight on small solar cells of high-efficiency. The efficiency rate of the cells is about 39 percent, and they concentrate the sunlight up to 500 times in an effort to generate more sunlight while still using less silicon than standard solar energy generating systems.

The Schafer corporation will test the CSP technology on the Maui Hi Performance Computer Center, which is one of six supercomputer centers that the Department of Defense has nationwide. The  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will fund the project.