Concentrating Solar Power

Also known as "solar thermal" or "central station solar," according to the US Department of Energy "CSP's relatively low cost and ability to deliver power during periods of peak demand—when and where we need it—mean that CSP can be a major contributor to the nation's future needs for distributed sources of energy.

Technology Overview
Concentrating solar power plants produce electric power by converting the sun's energy into high-temperature heat using various mirror configurations. The heat is then channelled through a conventional generator. The plants consist of two parts: one that collects solar energy and converts it to heat, and another that converts heat energy to electricity.

Concentrating solar power systems can be sized for village power (10 kilowatts) or grid-connected applications (up to 100 megawatts). Some systems use thermal storage during cloudy periods or at night. Others can be combined with natural gas and the resulting hybrid power plants provide high-value, dispatchable power. These attributes, along with world record solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies, make concentrating solar power an attractive renewable energy option in the Southwest and other sunbelt regions worldwide."

Concentrating Solar Projects

View animated graph explaining how different CSP technologies work Details

Excellent CSP photogallery on CNET

News

• Xcel wind, solar bids surpass expectations (11/04/08)
• Xcel Proposes 200MW Utility-Scale Solar Plant (11/27/07)
• 64MW Nevada Solar One Opens
• Pacific Gas & Electric Invests in Solar Thermal

Parabolic Troughs

• The world's largest solar plant: 280 MW CSP plant by Abengoa for Arizona Public Service (02/21/08)
• Nevada Solar One (08-06)
• Nevada breaks ground on world's third largest solar power plant (02-06)
• A chapter begins for concentrated solar - Nevada Solar One, (02-06) (most in-depth article on Solar One)
• Spain to build 9 thermoelectric solar plants for 450MW(09-05)

Stirling Energy Systems - Solar Thermal Dish

• San Diego Gas & Electric contracts for 300 MW solar thermal electric (09-05)
• Sandia tests solar thermal dish systems
• Southern California Edison invests in 850 MW power plant
  

Power Towers

• Vantage Point backs Luz II of Israel
• PGE signs deal with Luz II
• Victoria, Australia

Concentrating Photovoltaics

• Alamosa, CO to build photovoltaic power plant

Concentrated Linear Fresnel Reflectors

• Sun Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla on the economics of solar, and the end of coal
• Concentrated Linear Fresnel Reflectors: New South Wales Australia (one page brief)

Research Studies on Concentrating Solar Power:

Trans-Mediterranean Interconnection for Concentrating Solar Power: A Report on European Sustainable Energy by the German Environment Ministry. April 2006.

Economic, Energy and Environmental Benefits of Concentrating Solar Power for California. Study prepared by Black & Veech for National Renewable Energy Labs.

Concentrating Solar Power from NREL. From Imaging Notes, Summer 2006.

Greenpeace Report on Concentrating Solar Power.
Fall 2005

NREL "Fuel from the Sky" reports on the potential of CSP for Western Energy Supplies. 2002

Solar Task Force: Western Governor's Association

In January of 2006, the Solar Task Force of the Western Governor's Association prepared a report analyzing the promise of solar technologies for the Southwestern States. In this excerpt from the overview they noted:

"Solar energy can make a major contribution to the 2015 goal of 30,000 MW of clean energy adopted by the WGA in 2004. In fact, we project that as much as 8,000 MW of capacity could be installed with a combination of distributed solar electricity systems and central concentrating solar power (CSP) plants by 2015, and an additional 2,000 MWth of solar thermal systems could be installed in the same timeframe. At that point, the cost of electricity from future CSP plants should be on a par with that from plants burning costly natural gas..."

Download the Solar Task Force Report (3.2 MB)