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Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the announcement underscores the commitment
by President Barack Obama’s administration to making electricity generated
from solar energy competitive with conventional grid power.
“Low-cost renewable energy generation that includes energy storage is one key to our efforts to diversify domestic energy sources and create new jobs,” says Chu.
“By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can pave the way toward faster deployment of carbon-free, large-scale energy sources,” he adds.
Concentrating solar power technologies concentrate the sun’s energy and capture that energy as heat, which then drives an engine or turbine to produce electrical power.
CSP plants can include low-cost energy storage, which allows them to provide electricity even when the sun is not shining. CSP technologies currently used in utility-scale power plants typically do not have the capability/capacity for storage, operating only during daytime hours.
These projects will seek to improve technology and novel system designs to extend operation to an average of about 18 hours per day, a level of production that would make it possible for a CSP plant to displace a traditional coal power plant, according to Chu.
The competitive funding opportunity involves two areas:
*Research and development of concepts and components for a CSP system that enables a plant to produce low-cost electricity at least 18 hours of the day.
*Evaluation of the feasibility and development of a prototype complete CSP system capable of operating at least 18 hours per day while generating low-cost power.
