Research Overview

This research service focuses on new and disruptive technologies in the concentrated solar power (CSP) industry. Solar energy technology has witnessed consistent improvements in terms of energy and cost efficiency. While solar photovoltaics is currently the most widely adopted method of solar energy utilization, CSP technology has several features which make it an attractive alternative at the utility scale for energy generation and heating applications. The key advantage of a CSP system is its ability to store excess electricity in the form of thermal energy. CSP technologies generate electricity by utilizing mirrors to reflect, concentrate, and direct incident sunlight onto a specific point to create thermal energy. This thermal energy can then be either stored in thermal energy storage devices or used to create steam to drive turbines for electricity generation. This enables CSP to be the source of both electrical and thermal energy and find applications in heat recovery. However, despite the ability to offer better conversion efficiencies, the capital expenditure of CSP technology is hindering deployment.