The 200 MW, two-tower Saguache Solar Energy Project of Solar Reserve has been environmentally approved, which demonstrates that the capacity of CSP is steadily rising in 2012.
This scenario will continue as more research on CSP-PV combination, for increasing the total output and smooth grid integration, is performed. PV’s delivery curve does not match the electricity’s demand curve at optimal conditions. Only during midday, the peak output occurs, while in western countries, it can extend till afternoon or evening. In states like California, this situation is of great concern since it is believed that affordable PVs can help meet the renewable energy and carbon reducing objectives.
Mark Mehos and Paul Denholm , both from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), have done a modeling that shows PV can displace the highest-cost production sources and can slash the peaking capacity requirement at low penetration levels. Nevertheless, they said that an increase in the PV level can increase the production sources due to uncertain solar resources and its variability increases numerous times.
This further illustrates the value of CSP and its capacity to provide dispatchable power. This makes solar project developers, including Solar Reserve to develop storage technology that provides more effective capacities.
The CEO of Solar Reserve, Kevin Smith andSenior Energy Analyst, Paul Denholm at NREL, will participate in the CSP Today USA 2012 Conference and Exhibition, which will be held on June 27-28 at Las Vegas, and will present about the competitive value of CSP to gain more importance in the US energy mix.
Source: http://www.csptoday.com/usa/