Concentrated Solar Initiative Funded

The Department of Energy has released details for funding a two year effort to boost the viability of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). The goal of the initiative is to make the technology cost-competitive with existing electrical generation methods, with the goal of bringing the cost of generating electricity using CSP down to 10 cents per kilowatt hour power.

Concentrated Solar Power uses an array of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central receiver, heating its contents and forcing it through a turbine. Currently such efforts require delicate mirrors and protective coatings, and the fluid used is inefficient at transferring heat evenly. Movie fans might recall such a futuristic technology being employed in the 1974 James Bond film “The Man With the Golden Gun.”

The $5.2 million project is part of President George W. Bush’s Solar America Initiative, which has the goal of making solar power a commercially viable technology in a variety of forms by 2015. The DOE recently released details of a new photovoltaic solar research project, in which new technologies for directly turning sunlight into electricity are being studied by a consortium of public and private institutions.

Twelve projects in all are being funded under the grant. Work will be conducted by nine separate private companies in a coordinated effort, with the lion’s share of the funding ($2.037 million) going to Solucar, Inc. of Lakewood, Colorado. Solucar will be looking at development of an advanced trough system for collecting solar power, improved liquid salts for direct heat transfer, and a better polymeric reflector.

Other grant recipients are 3M (St. Paul, Minnesota), Alcoa (Pennsylvania), Brayton Energy (Hampton, New Hampshire), Hamilton Sundstrand (Canoga Park, California), Infinia (Kennewick, Washington), PPG Industries (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Skyfuel (New York, New York), and Solar Millenium (Berkeley, California).

According the DOE, “These projects aim to develop technology that dramatically reduces the cost of CSP power and emphasizes the development of storage technologies.” An additional $7.2 million is available to three of the DOE’s National Laboratories under this portion of the Solar America Initiative for the commercialization of existing technologies.

“Together, these projects will help advance President Bush’s energy initiatives by accelerating the adoption of renewable energy and moving new clean energy technologies into the marketplace,” said Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner.

For more information on the President’s Solar America Initiative and DOE’s commercialization efforts, visit: the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.