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Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect the solar energy and convert it to heat. This thermal energy can then be used to produce electricity via a steam turbine or heat engine driving a generator.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is ramping up its CSP research, development, and deployment efforts, leveraging both industry partners and the national laboratories. DOE's goals include increasing the use of CSP in the United States, making CSP competitive in the intermediate power market by 2015, and developing advanced technologies that will reduce systems and storage costs, enabling CSP to be competitive in the baseload power market by 2020.

DOE plans to achieve these goals through cost-shared contracts with industry, advanced research at its national laboratories, and collaboration with other government agencies to remove barriers to deploying the technology.

We highlight collaborative efforts with outside companies and research organizations in the following areas:

• Linear Concentrator Systems—includes R&D on parabolic troughs, but also, on other line-focus systems such as linear Fresnel reflectors.
• Dish/Engine Systems—includes R&D on dish structures, mirrors, and Stirling engines.
• Power Tower Systems—includes links to R&D being done within other CSP areas, but that are relevant to heliostats, receivers, and overall systems issues for central-receiver solar plants.
• Thermal Storage—includes R&D on heat-transfer fluids and thermal-storage materials to improve CSP systems.
• Advanced Components and Systems—includes characterization and testing of CSP materials, components, and systems, and other cross-cutting CSP technology R&D.

You can also learn more about the basics of CSP operations within the main technology areas.

Concentrating solar power technologies can generate electricity at relatively low cost and deliver power during periods of peak demand. In addition, integration with low-cost thermal storage adds significant value to the energy delivered from CSP plants. The public is becoming more familiar with the availability, benefits, and economic feasibility of CSP. And researchers are continuing to discover ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Consequently, many utilities are including concentrating solar power in their power-generation portfolio, helping our nation reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

CSP is one of four subprograms within the Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP), along with Photovoltaics, Market Transformation, and Systems Integration. The SETP subprograms focus on accelerating the advancement of solar energy technologies to make solar electricity more cost competitive with conventional forms of electricity.