Concentrating Solar Power Concentrating solar power (CSP) is a form of energy production technology that concentrates large amounts of solar energy onto a small area. Here, the energy density is much higher than that available from just beam sunshine and the efficiencies of its conversion to useful energy (ie electricity or steam) is much higher. There are three main types of CSP including direct intercept dishes, solar troughs and solar towers. Some newcomers to the field include, for example, the Compact Linear Freznel Reflectors. Solarsphere technology combines elements of direct intercept dishes with solar towers and does this with a design philosophy and materials that potentially permit the units to be produced large and inexpensively. | |
Direct Intercept Dishes
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| Parabolic Troughs See gallery | |
| Solar Towers See gallery | |
| Solarsphere Solarsphere Technology combines elements of both direct intercept dishes and Solar Towers. The design philosophy that focuses on spheres and lightweight, thin film materials presents opportunities for concentrators that are large, cheap and mass producible. See gallery |  Image Source: Solarsphere |
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| SolarPACES is an international cooperative organisation bringing together teams of national experts from around the world to focus on the development and marketing of concentrating solar power systems (also known as solar thermal power systems). |  |
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| Greenpeace CSP 2020 This Greenpeace Industry review considers the opportunities for Concentrating Solar Power as a potential solution to climate change. |  |
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 | The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business |
 | Image source: Solarsphere |
| Detail of the 4 metre ball showing the mirror. Image source: Solarsphere |  |
 | Image source: Solarsphere |
| The first 8 metre ball clearly showing the construction method using lunes - long strips - of plastic. Image source: Solarsphere |  |
 | Image source: Solarsphere |
| The 8 metre Sierra Concentrator Unit with the target in foreground, Image source: Solarsphere |  |
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 | My Clean Sky quality air travel carbon offsets Did you know? Greenhouse emissions produced by jet engines flying at cruising altitude (in the lower stratosphere where it is minus 40 degree cenclius) are up to five time more potent as those produced at ground level. Learn more about aviation emissions at My Clean Sky. |
 | Echo 1 Satellite made by NASA in the 1965s. The 30 meter diameter balloon was made of 0.127 mm thick Mylar polyester film, similar material proposed for the Solarsphere. Image Source: NASA |
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Solar Energy Generating System (SEGS) at Kramer Junction, California, USA. |  |
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| The powerplant at the SEGS site. The solar energy is supplemented by gas for generating power at night. |  |
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| The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business |
The Scheffler mirror. This small mirror uses a concentrating heliostat arrangement, like Solarsphere. However, its size is limited by its engineering design and application. This dish is about 10 sqr metres. Image Source: Sun Ovens |  |
 | The Scheffler concentrating heliostat mirrors in an array for producing steam. Image Source: Sun Ovens |
| Cleaning a heliostat mirror. As can be seen, considerable effort may be required to clean the mirror surface. |  |
 | Solar Two, a concentrating heliostat using liquid salt as the energy transfer medium from the hot spot on top of the tower to the steam turbines at the bottom of the tower. |
| Solar Tower technology at the Solar Research Facilities of the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) . A major feature of the Unit is a SolarPower Tower containing a field of 64 large, multi-faceted mirrors (heliostats), each measuring 7 X 8 meters. Each heliostat tracks the movement of the sun independently and reflects its light onto a selected target on a 54-meter high tower. This is the only Solar Tower facility in the world located on a campus of a research or academic institute and is solely dedicated to scientific work. Image Source: Weizmann Institute of Science |  |
 | Heliostat mirrors from a Spanish Solar Tower project. Image Source: SolarPACES |
| Heliostat array from E-Solar offers utility scale solar power. Their innovation lies in the use of small, easily managed mirrors and modular solar field design. Image Source: E-Solar |  |
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| My Clean Sky quality air travel carbon offsets Did you know? Over two billion air passengers fly every year. Learn more about aviation emissions at My Clean Sky. |
 | The Photon Energy Transformer & Astrophysics Laboratory (PETAL) is the world's largest dish-shaped solar concentrator. Using this facility Sde Boqer's scientists will be able to concentrate 400 kW of sunlight to intensities up to 10,000 times stronger than normal noontime sunshine. Image Source: Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Centre, Israel |
Dig Dish in Israel demonstrating the eleborate mechanical support structure. Image Source: Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Centre, Israel |  |
 | Petal (Big Dish) in Israel. The elaborate support structures can be seen behind the two engineers. Note also the concrete annular ring. This picture demonstrates the extensive use of material required for concentrating solar power technology. It is the use of small amounts of materials that give Solarsphere an edge. Image Source: Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Centre, Israel |
| The Schlaich Bergermann und Partner direct intercept concentration dish formed by a depressurised membrane. The sunlight is concentrated onto a 10 kw Stirling Engine. Image Source: SBP |  |
 | An alternative version of the Schlaich Bergermann und Partner designed dish. Image Source: SBP |
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| The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business |
| An array of solar concentrators using Stirling Engines. |  |
 | Close up of the direct intercept concentrators with Stirling Engines. |
| A direct intercept concentrator with a counterbalance design. |  |
 | Image source: Solar Systems |
| An engineer checks the reciever head of the Solar Systems SS20 Solar Electric Generation Unit. The SS20 uses water cooled photovoltaics to produce about 20 KW electrical. A later design combined the opportunity to use cooling water for hot water heating purposes rather than just as a heat dump. Image source: Solar Systems |  |
 | The solar concentrators at White Cliffs, South Australi, developed by Solar Energy Systems. Image source: Solar Systems |
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| My Clean Sky quality air travel carbon offsets Did you know? There is a billion dollar race underway to develop an airliner that does not cook the planet and this includes solar power planes and jet engines that run on algae oil. Learn more about the future of passenger airliners at My Clean Sky. |
| An American direct intercept dish. This is the Stirling Energy Systems Solar Concentrator. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems |  |
 | Reflection of an engineer looking into the reciever of The Stirling Energy Systems 25 kW Stirling Engine. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems |
| The 25kW stirline engine used for the Stirling Energy Systems direct intercept system. The picture shows the reciever end of the engine. The spiral metal is the pick up for the hot spot. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems |  |
 | Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems |
| Another American technology, the The SAIC Sundish with a 20 kW STM stirling engine. Image source: SAIC |  |
 | The SAIC Sundish in the park position. This position allows offers the system some protection from heavy weather and allows accss to the Stirling Engine for maintenance. Image source: SAIC |
| The STM stirling engine used to power the SAIC Sundish. Image source: SAIC |
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| The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business |
Ausra, the latest invarnation of the Compact Linear Freznel Reflector technology (as below). This enterprise benefitting from the support of venture capitalist, Vinod Khosla, recently won large contracts for installation. Image Source: Ausra |  |
 | Australian Compact Linear Freznel Reflector technology developed by Solar Heat and Power Pty Ltd. This sytem is installed at the Liddel power station, NSW, Australia and preheats water for the coal fired powwer plant. Image Source: Solar Heat and Power |
| Heliodynamics CLFR system combined heat and power system. Image Source: Heliodynamics |  |
 | Image Source: Lloyd Energy |
Image Source: Solray |  |
The Sun pulse, a innovative water pump using solar concentrator and stirling engine. At the front of the pump is a solar collector; this reflects sunlight towards the middle where it heats up the front of a Stirling Engine. Sunvention's unique design of Stirling engine uses air at atmospheric pressure as the working fluid, and pulses at a slow 30-60 times per minute. The pump can be attached to a rotary pump, or as shown, connected to a hydraulic cylinder. The other end of the hydraulic hose is connected to a hydraulic cylinder attached in this case to an India Mark II Water Pump. Image Source: Sunpulse |  |
 | eSolar designs and develops Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) projects that start at 46MW and are scalable to any size. Image Source: esolar |
Image Source: Sky Fuel |  |
Sopogy pioneered Micro-Scaled Concentrating Solar Power or "MicroCSP" technologies. Sopogy's MicroCSP systems cost the same to install conventional Photovoltaic solar systems but increase the amount of energy generated bringing better investment returns to our customers. MicroCSP uses concentrating mirrors with optics, low cost thermal storage, sun tracking, and a affordable systems installation technique to keep the costs down while delivering a quick payback. MicroCSP technologies are used to create Process Heat, Solar Air Conditioning or Electrical Power and can be ground or rooftop mounted opening an entirely new market for CSP systems. Image Source: Sopogy |
| Solar Millennium is specialised in parabolic trough power plants, a proven and future-oriented technology, in which the Group holds a globally leading position. Besides the three Andasol projects in Spain, a parabolic trough power plant is being built in Egypt . Various further projects with an overall capacity of more than 2,000 Megawatts worldwide are in the planning phase with focus on Spain, USA, China and North-Africa. In the future, solar thermal power plants in the south will contribute to Central Europe`s electricity supply. Image Source: Solar Millenium |  |
 | SolFocus has developed leading concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology which combines high-efficiency solar cells (approaching 40%) and advanced optics to provide solar energy solutions which are scalable, dependable and capable of delivering on the promise of clean, low-cost, renewable energy. Image Source: Solfocus |
| Concentrix Solar GmbH was founded in 2005 as a spin-off company of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. The company is located in Freiburg in Breisgau. Concentrix Solar further developed the Concentrator PV technology generated from many years of research work at Fraunhofer ISE and brought it from the laboratory to market ready products and advanced it into series production. Under the name FLATCON ® , we offer complete, turnkey concentrator photovoltaic power plants on the commercial level. Image Source: Concentrix |  |
 | From its founding in 2001, Energy Innovations believed in the promise of concentrated solar. We believed in the promise of higher energy production, lower cost and ultimately, the lowest cost of energy. Today we stand ready to realize that promise. With the introduction of our new Sunflower HCPV solution, we have harnessed the power of 1,200 suns to achieve an astounding 29% module efficiency. But we didn't stop there — with our holistic approach, we also created the world's simplest and lowest-cost HCPV solution to install. Image Source: Energy Innovations |
Amonix is the leading designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems which require no water in power production, use land more efficiently, and produce more energy per acre than any other solar technology. Amonix was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Seal Beach, CA, with additional facilities in Torrance, CA. Image Source: Amonix |  |
 | Green and Gold's solar strategy is to dramatically exceed the cost effectiveness of existing PV flat panels through focused innovations in both the effective collection of solar energy (peak kWs) and the generation of maximum annual electric power (kWhs). To execute this program, our design and development teams worked to create the innovative and ground breaking "SunCube™". Featuring a high efficiency (~31%) solar energy kWh harvester, smart dawn to dusk "Max kWh™" internal 2 axis sun tracker and "Cool PV™" low operational CPV cell temperature. Extensive testing has been done around the world to ensure 25+ years of life and high reliability. Image Source: Green and Gold Energy |
| Advanced quantum dot nanotechnology high efficiency Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) cells at high concentration. Cyrium is committed to enabling the expansion and wide-spread acceptance of Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) and now offers the QDEC (Quantum Dot Enhanced Cell) product family of standard cell size products. In addition standard QDEC cells, Cyrium also provides cell performance optimization and customization services through the Application-Specific Concentrator Cells (ASCC) program. The QDEC product family offers efficiency levels of ~40% at >500-1000 suns and a minimum efficiency offering of 38% on a standard 10x10mm cell. Image Source: Cyrium Technologies |  |
 | Our inflated, balloon-shaped concentrators are key to Cool Earth's innovative design. Each 8-foot-diameter concentrator is made of plastic film—the same kind of plastic film used to bag potato chips, pretzels, and so on—with a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated with air, the concentrator naturally forms a shape that focuses or concentrates sunlight onto a PV cell placed at the focal point. This means we need fewer cells to produce a lot more electricity. In fact, a single cell in our concentrator generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without a concentrator. Image Source: Cool Earth Solar |
Sol3g is one of the first companies at world-wide level incommercializing HCPV systems. The company centers its activity in the consultancy, investigation, manufacture and commercialization of third generation photovoltaic systems, particularly specialized in high concentration systems, non-imaging optics and advanced intelligent electro-mechanical tracking and control systems. Image Source: Sol3g |  |
| The Chromasun Micro-Concentrator (MCT) is a next generation high performance solar collector that uses the same technology as utility scale solar systems, except now in a much smaller package. It has been designed purposely for rooftop integration. The MCT is low profile, lightweight and has no external moving parts so it’s simple to mount and easy to maintain. Using a 25X Fresnel reflector optic the MCT generates temperatures up to 400°F (200°C), something you wouldn’t expect from a flat panel solar collector. Perfect for process heat applications and ideal for air-conditioning systems, this exciting product is now in production and ready to deploy on commercial and industrial rooftops. Image Source: Chromasun |
