Energy Dept. to Devote $30M to Advance CSP Technology
WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy will award up to $30 million for innovative projects that accelerate the large-scale development and deployment of concentrated solar-thermal power technology.
The so-called Concentrating Solar Flux to Heat and Power funding opportunity is being administered by the department’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.
CSP technologies offer unique value as renewable energy resources that can readily deliver high-temperature heat and incorporate energy storage for on-demand solar power.
In essence, the systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into an elevated receiver.
They generate electricity by concentrating light into heat, which drives a steam turbine or other type of heat engine connected to an electrical power generator.
The Energy Department expects the funding opportunity to be formally rolled out later this month.
The Solar Energy Technologies Office is particularly interested in funding projects in three topic areas:
- Scalable concentrating solar collectors.
- Scalable supercritical carbon dioxide turbomachinery.
- Scalable concentrating solar-thermal receivers and reactors.
The goals of the intended funding opportunity are aligned with the department’s target of levelized cost of heat of $0.02 per kilowatt-hour, and levelized cost of electricity of $0.05 per kilowatt-hour.
The full notice of intent can be found here.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
