CSP Technology
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use mirrors to focus solar radiation on a thermal receiver to heat a fluid for use directly in a process or to make vapor and generate electricity through a turbine. Point focus collectors include power tower and parabolic dish technologies. Line focus collectors include linear Fresnel and parabolic trough. Of these technologies, parabolic trough has the longest commercial track record and the most financed, installed, and operational plants in the world. In fact, 95% of all operational CSP projects today use parabolic trough technology.
A critical and valuable feature of CSP systems, particularly when compared to photovoltaic (PV) systems, is their ability to store heat for later power generation at night, during cloudy weather, or to coincide with peak utility demand.
CSP Market
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use mirrors to focus solar radiation on a thermal receiver to heat a fluid for use directly in a process or to make vapor and generate electricity through a turbine. Point focus collectors include power tower and parabolic dish technologies. Line focus collectors include linear Fresnel and parabolic trough. Of these technologies, parabolic trough has the longest commercial track record and the most financed, installed, and operational plants in the world. In fact, 95% of all operational CSP projects today use parabolic trough technology.
A critical and valuable feature of CSP systems, particularly when compared to photovoltaic (PV) systems, is their ability to store heat for later power generation at night, during cloudy weather, or to coincide with peak utility demand.
Why Parabolic Trough?
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More than 3 decays of experience
parabolic trough technology was used for -grade power generation since the mid 1980’s
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Commercially Proven
parabolic trough solar thermal power plants are well-understood and will proven. Up to end of 2013 around 3.2 GWe of this technology was under operation, 1 GWe under planning, 2 GWe under planning and 1.5 GW under developing
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Remarkably Efficient
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Optimized Design
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Modular And Scalable
The ability to simply add more rows of troughs to scale up to produce hundreds of megawatts further makes parabolic trough power plants the premier choice for utility-grade solar power
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Smooth And Predictable Output
A parabolic trough solar field also has inherent “free” energy storage that, depending on the size of the plant, allows electricity production to continue well after the sun has been blocked by a cloud
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Financeable