Concentrated Solar Power Taking Center Stage

Solar electrical systems aren’t only being considered for homes and business buildings. Concentrated Solar Power or CSP is rapidly becoming the "other solar".

Concentrated Solar Power typically consists of a trough and a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned along the reflector's focal line. The reflector is made to follow the sun during the daylight hours by tracking along a single axis. A working fluid (oil, water) flows through the receiver and is heated to high temperatures before transferring its heat to a distillation or power generation system. Trough systems are the most developed CSP technology. The Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS) plants in California and Plataforma Solar de Almería's SSPS-DCS plant in Spain are representatives of this technology

CSP is evolving from large scale generation facilities like SEGS to small solar farms and eventually sited on commercial rooftops. One company leading this charge is Sopogy. Sopogy already is in the process of planning and building a 1-megawatt solar farm using its technology at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority on the Big Island.

Instead of employing photovoltaic cells that convert light to electricity, the system makes use of curved mirrors that intensify and focus sun energy on a pipe filled with a fluid. After being heated, the fluid can be used to drive turbines and generate electricity, for use in absorption electricity or steam creation. While the technology has been around for more than 30 years, Sopogy says it has a design that makes the process more efficient.

Pretty exciting stuff...the "other" solar may soon be mainstream.