National Laboratory Concentrating Solar Power Research

DOE supports concentrating solar power (CSP) research and development and core capabilities at its national laboratories (Program Fact Sheet) to accelerate progress toward achieving the SunShot Initiative's technoeconomic targets. These multi-year projects are funded based on a competitive proposal process and address the challenges pertaining to all CSP subcomponents, including collectors, receivers, power block, and thermal energy storage. The ongoing projects are as follows:

Argonne National Laboratory: High-Efficiency Thermal Energy Storage System for CSP
Los Alamos National Laboratory: High-Temperature Thermal Array for Next Generation Solar Thermal Power Production
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Low-Cost Heliostat for Modular Systems
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Direct s-CO₂ Receiver Development
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Degradation Mechanisms and Development of Protective Coatings for TES and HTF Containment Materials
Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Low-Cost Self-Cleaning Reflector Coatings for CSP Collectors
Sandia National Laboratories: High-Temperature Solar Selective Coating Development for Power Tower Receivers
Sandia National Laboratories: Dish/Stirling High-Performance Thermal Storage
Savannah River National Laboratory: Fundamental Corrosion Studies in High-Temperature Molten Salt Systems for Next-Generation CSP Systems
Savannah River National Laboratory: Low-Cost Metal Hydride Thermal Energy Storage System

In addition, the DOE CSP Program also funds core capabilities at Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Approach

The National Laboratory R&D program seeks to accelerate progress toward the levelized cost of energy target of $0.06 per kilowatt-hour through novel and transformative research into CSP technologies. DOE national laboratories are working to produce significant improvements in CSP performance and cost by addressing the technical and economic targets of the component technologies, including collectors, receivers, power block, and thermal energy storage as well as through systems analysis.

Innovation

This applied research program supports technological developments that have the potential for dramatic improvements over existing commercial and near-commercial CSP systems.