CSP can deliver greater grid stability than photovoltaics, but needs better recognition of its value to be competitive.
Concentrated solar power's failure to gain momentum in U.S. markets is a signal that traditional resource valuations may be slowing the energy transition, a February CSP conference made clear.
Spanish researchers propose a completely new way to dry cool thermal power plants, inspired by commercially available underground heat pumps used to cool buildings.
New tariff legislation, proven plant performance and a growing need for storage is increasing investor confidence in Spanish CSP ownership, investors told New Energy Update.
As one of its core activities to support technical progress and awareness building in this area, the SolarPACES conference, initiated in 1980, is the foremost symposium for the who's who in concentrating solar power and chemical energy systems, offering a forum for...
DOE prioritizes supercritical CSP in latest funding round
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to provide up to $44 million to CSP-related R&D projects in its latest $125.5 million funding round for solar technologies, the DOE said February 5.
The department is to provide a total of $39 million to one or two projects that build and demonstrate supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle technology, it said. The systems must achieve thermal energy storage at temperatures of between 550° C and 630° C.
CSP and molten salt technology could help coal-fired generators decarbonize without closing sites, but price support will be needed, experts told New Energy Update.
While many CSP developers are seeking to directly compete with coal-fired power generation, a small group of players see opportunities in working with coal plant operators.
Many governments have sidelined growing climate change concerns and supported coal-fired generation, either for financial or political reasons.
It is rare for an innovation in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) to go from the lab to commercial in just 5 years. The biggest obstacle to advancing potential cost-cutting improvements in novel CSP technologies is getting them deployed in commercial projects. Risks are high when every CSP plant must be built at utility-scale and must make money right away.
A new ceramic particle CSP receiver soon to be tested in the U.S. could lower the cost of energy by up to 20% and accelerate industrial heat deployment through particle transport innovations, Reiner Buck, Head of Solar Tower Systems at German Aerospace Centre (DLR), told New Energy Update.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy allocated $750,000 of funding to Sandia National Laboratories to accelerate testing of the centrifugal receiver (Centrec), a new high-temperature ceramic particle receiver developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
