Making the case for concentrated solar power

CSP’s Resurgence in India

CSP is experiencing a remarkable resurgence and India unveiled a 50% allocation for CSP in its renewable energy tender for the first quarter of 2024.

Scaling up CSP will bridge the gap caused by intermittent-generation PV and wind projects to help power the world’s most populous country with reliable, affordable, continuous renewable energy.

Rajan Varshney, deputy managing director of the National Thermal Power Corporation, India’s largest state-owned utility company said recently, “Now is the right time for CSP … As PV and wind capacity increases, increasingly more and more coal-based power will be required to make it firm and to supply electricity when the sun is not there. So by increasing PV, we cannot avoid coal unless we install CSP plus storage in Gujarat and Rajasthan.”

CSP’s resurgence may surprise industry insiders who consider the technology obsolete after problems with large scale sites, notably in California and Arizona.

While previous installations were massive, complex, custom-engineered, and not replicable, my company, 247Solar, has obtained finance for a modular version that solves for these challenges.

Our version operates on superheated air at normal atmospheric pressure. It stores energy using simple materials, not molten salt, and it can be mass-produced in 400 kW units for economies of scale.

The model shows promise to greatly shorten project cycles and resume the dramatic CSP cost reductions achieved in its early years and which slowed as the older technology matured.

Demand

Around-the-clock power demand has been rising because of growth in emerging economies and is accelerating due to data centers, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence (AI). As we move to electrify with electric vehicles, heat pumps, and industrial heat, CSP emerges as a viable solution to address those needs and provide continuous power.

Grid operators continue to grapple with the variability of photovoltaic and wind energy. Wind, if it blows at night, can help balance daytime solar but wind is much more variable than sunshine and requires long-distance, high-voltage lines to get to market, which can add cost and time to wind farm deployment.

Even large doses of lithium-ion batteries – meant to handle morning and evening peak loads, as gas peaker plants did before them – are nowhere near enough to store the energy it would take to keep the grid powered through the night and during bad weather, as coal plants have. Batteries may also feature conflict minerals, unlike our thermal energy storage systems.

CSP’s levelized cost of energy (LCOE) has fallen dramatically, by almost 70% since 2010, offering longer and more economical energy storage than batteries.

Concentrated solar has returned to projects that will pair it with PV to extend power output into the night, reducing overall LCOE by harnessing synergies between the two technologies.

Pioneers

Some of the high-profile early efforts at CSP got many things right, such as Abengoa Solar’s Solana plant near Phoenix, launched in 2013, or BrightSource’s Ivanpah plant in California, the world’s largest solar thermal site at the time, also in 2013.

Initial CSP plants focused the sun’s heat on a single point, reaching temperatures above 530 degrees Celsius. Our system pushes that limit to around 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Those pioneer sites also stored energy for six- to 12-hour operation at night, aiming for more straightforward, cost-effective technology than polysilicon-based PV modules.

CSP is no longer just huge installations of pipes and mirrors in the desert or towers as high as a wind turbine, however.

We are seeing new interest in 247Solar’s smaller, simpler, more flexible application of this technology.

Our turbines generate electricity from nothing more than superheated air so they don’t require a phase change of the energy from heat to steam as other CSP systems do.

Sustainable

We store the extra heat in cheap, inert materials such as sand, iron slag, or ceramic pellets. This eliminates the need for corrosive, high-maintenance molten salt, along with its other chemical and physical challenges.

Our proprietary thermal batteries provide 18-plus hours of storage for on-demand, industrial-grade heat and electricity. They can produce power during bad weather and, when fully discharged, the generators can even run on green hydrogen, natural gas, or diesel. With a capacity factor of 85%, however, that would occur far less often than in a system of PV plus batteries with a 40% capacity factor

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. SDGs Addressed or Connected:

   • SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
   • SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
   • SDG 13: Climate Action

   The issues highlighted in the article are connected to SDG 7, which focuses on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. It is also connected to SDG 9, which aims to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation. Additionally, the article addresses SDG 13, which focuses on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

2. Specific Targets:

   • SDG 7.2: Increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
   • SDG 9.1: Develop quality, reliable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure
   • SDG 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning

   The article’s content identifies specific targets under the SDGs mentioned above. It highlights the need to increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix (SDG 7.2), develop sustainable and resilient infrastructure (SDG 9.1), and integrate climate change measures into national policies (SDG 13.2).

3. Indicators:

   • Investment in concentrated solar power (CSP) projects
   • Reduction in the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for CSP
   • Deployment of CSP with photovoltaics to extend power output into the night

   The article mentions or implies indicators that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets. These indicators include investment in CSP projects, reduction in the LCOE for CSP, and the deployment of CSP with photovoltaics to extend power output into the night.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.

Source: pv-magazine.com

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