Concentrating Solar Power Research

NREL's capabilities in concentrating solar power (CSP) include modeling and optimizing solar collectors, developing solar thermal energy storage, and boosting conversion of solar thermal energy into electric power, industrial steam, and chemical fuels.

NREL scientists and engineers pursue R&D and support clients and partners with research in the following areas.

Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power

NREL is defining the next generation of CSP plants through integration of thermal energy storage technologies that enhance system capacity, reliability, efficiency, and grid stability.

Solar Fields

For CSP plants, solar fields represent a large portion of capital investment. Their cost and performance are important in reducing cost and improving efficiencies of CSP plants.

Solar Fuels

Solar energy can be used to convert basic chemical feedstocks such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into clean alternative fuels that offer greater grid stability, energy security, and environmental benefits. NREL researchers are working to make these processes more cost effective and commercially viable.

Concentrated Solar Heat

Solar heat can generate heated fluid or steam for commercial and industrial use. NREL research advances collector, receiver, and storage technologies to capture and store heat more efficiently for heat dispatch and steam generation.

Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage

NREL researchers integrate CSP systems with thermal energy storage to increase system efficiency, dispatchability, and flexibility.

Techno-Economic Analysis

NREL measures and models the solar resource, develops and uses computer models for engineering design and modeling of system performance and technology deployment, and investigates the value and impacts of dispatchable utility-scale solar power to regional grid networks.