CSP: Market Trends and New Technologies

By Stephen Lacey, Podcast Editor
January 24, 2008 | 10 Comments

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Peterborough, New Hampshire [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is emerging as one of the most promising utility-scale renewable energy sources. The launch of Nevada Solar One last June sparked a revival for this so-called "sleeping giant" in the U.S. and marked the first of a series of important developments for the industry. But there is still much uncertainty about the mid-term prospects for CSP, as the possibility of the investment and production tax credits expiring hangs over the industry.

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Faced with this rocky investment climate, the U.S. is falling behind countries like Spain, which has a generous feed-in tariff for CSP developers. Mike Taylor, Director of Research for the Solar Electric Power Association just got back from a trip to Spain where he toured a few different projects and talked to developers and financiers. Taylor and CSP Today founder Belen Gallego will tell us about how the Spanish industry is benefiting from the country's renewable energy support structure.

We'll also speak with Ausra Executive Vice President John O'Donnell about the company's unique parabolic trough collectors and about how uncertainty in the U.S. market may impacting its aggressive business plan.

Finally, Darren Kimura, President and CEO of Sopogy talks about micro-CSP and how the company's technology can play a major role in the distributed generation sector.

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10 Reader Comments

Comment
1 of 10

william-hughes-66196

January 25, 2008

It is clear that for thermal solar, concentration is the way to go.  This relates to one of the laws of thermodynamics that says that the efficiency of any heat engine is equal to the difference in temperature between the hot and the cold ends of the process divided by the kelvin temperature of the cold end (or was it the hot end).  However, concentration is also touted for solar electric.  Why is this more cost effective.  Is most of the gain because solar concentrators tend to be built to track the sun.  What would be the gain between ordinary solar electric panels that tracked the sun and  solar electric panels using concentrated sun light.  Is there not a lot of extra expense and faster degredation for solar electric panels using concentrated sun light.

Comment
2 of 10

gary-tulie-73445

January 25, 2008

<p>CSP is idealy suited to areas with regular full sunshine, and will suffer significantly reduced output in areas with frequent clouds as it only responds to direct sunshine. In hot sunny climates, this will work out well, as power demand will reduce when cloud cover increases.</p><p>Thermal storage will allow "run through" during intermittant cloudy conditions, and will allow other plant to be scheduled efficiently by allowing CSP to provide spinning reserve.</p><p>One thing to consider is that if plant is not local, demand will not be followed as closely, so requiring greater reserve capacity. This will be partly offset by dispersing plant over a wide geographical area. </p>

Comment
3 of 10

Jonathan_Cole

January 25, 2008

<p>The problem with solar concentrator systems: </p><p>Concentrators require a point source of light (sunlight without any clouds). The diffusion of the point source (from clouds) results in virtually no energy at the collector. So CSP only makes sense where there are no clouds. (Death Valley perhaps?) photovoltaiv collectors, on the other hand, continue to output a significant fraction of theirs rated energy even in cloudy weather.</p><p> http://lightontheearth.blogspot.com/</p><p> </p>

Comment
4 of 10

david-ahlport-66657

January 25, 2008

<div>You guys are kinda forgetting that Solar Thermal offers the amazing potential of HEAT STORAGE.</div><div><a href="http://greyfalcon.net/solarthermal" target="_blank">http://greyfalcon.net/solarthermal</a></div><div>This means not only could is provide peak power, load following power, but it could also provide baseload power.</div><div>And considering how vast the ammount of solar energy there is, thats more than enough to electrify our entire world grid, hundreds of times over.  With just solar thermal, and nothing else.</div><div><a href="http://greyfalcon.net/greenenergy.png" target="_blank">http://greyfalcon.net/greenenergy.png</a></div>

Comment
5 of 10

eugene-lucas-60935

January 25, 2008

CSP is the perfect solution to California's peak power problem! In the summer the max load on the grid is around 50 gigawatts, with around 13 of that being for air conditioning whose use tracks solar radiation 1-to-1. The complaint that the sun doesn't shine all the time is true, but the need is there when the sun does shine. The usage profile tracks solar insolation perfectly. No need for storage schemes or back-up gas. Just produce the power when you need it.

Comment
6 of 10

hussain-alrobaei-50048

January 25, 2008

Current drastically increasing fuel prices and power shortages for summer daytime peaking power in southern Europe suggest that Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems will find their prime market segment in summer season on peaks. Here, power generation cost differences, compared to typically used gas turbine operation, are smallest. Any renewable energy supply strategy aiming to take over the major part of electricity supply in the decades to come has to consider CSP as this technology option is capable of contributing with reliable, dispatchable power, specifically for daytime-demand peaks. Moreover, southern Europe is not capable of generating all of its required reliable peaking power alone through its own renewable resources. Consequently, energy cooperation with its neighboring countries is mandatory and has already become day-by-day practice.

Comment
7 of 10

gerry-wolff-45432

January 25, 2008

Further information about concentrating solar power (CSP) and <br />the 'DESERTEC' concept developed by the TREC international network<br />of scientists and engineers may be found at:<br /><br />http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/<br /><br />and<br /><br />http://www.desertec.org/

Comment
8 of 10

lorin-vant-hull-22077

January 26, 2008

<p>Unfortunataly, its the HOT end.  Sorry, no perpetual motion machines today!</p><p>Storage does allow one to reduce the size and cost of the turbine for a given field.  Then the peak power level of the plant is reduced, but the cost of energy is reduced and capacity credit can be obtained for the more reliable intermediate and peak load power produced.  Fortunately storage in molten salt is inexpensive, and has been proved as simple to operate and reliable at Solar Two, the 10 MW electric plant central receiver (power tower) plant that operated in the 1980's.</p><p> </p>

Comment
9 of 10

deep_patel

January 27, 2008

The USA is a very innovate country in everything except energy, compared to the rest of the world we are stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to energy. Our political and corporate climate does not support clean energy compared to the rest of the world in which it is thriving. The American southwest has so much energy and is a perfect area for CSP technology. The growth in the CSP market here in the USA depends on how supportive the government is, unfortunately. The Micro CSP Company is a great example of private companies that are pushing this industry ahead with or without government support, very smart how their business model does not depend on net metering, since they are going with a holistic approach with their products.

-Deep Patel
www.gogreensolar.com

Comment
10 of 10

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May 14, 2010

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Stephen Lacey

About: I am a reporter with ClimateProgress.org, a blog published by the Center for American Progress. I am former editor and producer for RenewableEnergyWorld.com, wh... more »