US Department of Energy (DOE) admits that a lot more needs to be done to boost the expansion of concentrating solar power technology

DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Program is funding nearly 30 industry projects.  Significantly, the department is working on its goal of reducing the cost of CSP electricity from 13-16 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) with no storage to 8-11 cents/kWh with six hours of storage by 2015.

DOE has strong links with the CSP industry through its support for technological development, testing and evaluation of components, and resource assessment.

The DOE is also updating and expanding its test facilities at Sandia and NREL in order to better evaluate CSP components and systems, and cut costs.

Frank Wilkins, solar thermal R&D team leader at the department, cites improved receiver performance and reliability, development of field optical performance test equipment, and lower operations and maintenance costs.

Recent R&D contracts are intended to accelerate that progress.

Question of cash

“Reaching the cost goal, however, requires both R&D advances and industrial cost reductions resulting from the construction of projects,” says Wilkins, who is scheduled to speak during the 3^rd Concentrated Solar Power Summit US, to be held in San Francisco from June 30 to July 1 this year.

State renewable energy portfolio standards have created a market for projects and the CSP industry has been successful in establishing power purchase agreements with utilities.

But at the same time, according to Wilkins, the country’s economic problems have made it difficult for companies to raise the money needed to finance the projects.

“I’m optimistic, however, that we’ll see several new CSP plants begin construction in the next couple of years,” said Wilkins, who added that these projects would not only provide a lot of power but also lead to future cost reductions.

But the fluctuating cost of commodities makes fixed goals unfeasible.

“We are getting away from having a fixed cost goal. Our CSP goal is for the technology to be competitive in the intermediate power market by 2015, whatever it is by that time,” Wilkins said.

Solar acceleration

Last year there was a call for the DOE to streamline the planning permission system and work with utilities to ensure that projects with PPAs and/or utility support are given priority by the authorities.

For its part, in order to accelerate large-scale solar deployment, the DOE is assisting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in a review of applications for solar projects on Federal land.

“The decision on siting and permitting of projects, however, is a BLM responsibility,” Wilkins said.

As dozens of CSP plants move closer to commercialisation, land access issues become more important. While many of the planned projects will be developed on privately owned land, some of the nation’s best solar resources are on public property.

Last year the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages much of the public land being considered for solar development, began a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement study (PEIS) for solar installations on its land. Although this two-year study is expected to speed up the application process, it is not likely to be finalised until 2010.

Elaborating on the DOE’s role, Wilkins said: “We are co-leads with BLM on the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), which when completed in 2010 will identify BLM-managed land suitable for utility-scale solar projects.”

This is also expected to streamline the process by which developers gain access to land.

Positive steps

In addition, DOE is working to improve the quality of solar resource data made available to industry so that companies will be better able to predict the performance of their plant.

Meanwhile, as highlighted by the SEIA recently, the list of pending applications for solar development on BLM lands has now grown to more than 200 projects, each of which will be processed individually. Fortunately, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided additional funding for the BLM, some of which will be used to speed up the processing of these applications – so the backlog might not be as long as initially feared.

Another critical issue is related to the Investment Tax Credit (ITC).  The ITC was extended not only in its duration but also in its application last year, when the restriction preventing regulated utilities from using it was removed. Wilkins feels the change will enable utilities to build and own CSP plants.

An example of this is the 75MW trough plant being built in Florida by Florida Power & Light.

While at present most utilities prefer buying power from CSP plants, that may change in future as they become more familiar with the technology, Wilkins said.

Transmission gap

Also, concerns have been raised about the lack of a transmission policy. State legislatures will reportedly have to lead the way by creating transmission authorities and/or mandating their public utility commissions to develop competitive renewable energy zones.

Acknowledging this, Wilkins said CSP could not exist without access to transmission that can move power from the desert to distant load centres.

The CSP industry needs to establish its position on transmission policy and make it known to state and Federal agencies, he said.

“Fortunately, state and Federal agencies are aware of the problem and efforts are under way to address it,” Wilkins said. But he added that no solution would be simple as the issue crosses many jurisdictions.

Despite the barriers to CSP becoming a major part of the country’s electricity supply, Wilkins said, the new emphasis on renewable energy is leading to increased coordination among Federal agencies.

3rd Concentrated Solar Power Summit US

CSPToday.com is scheduled to conduct the third edition of Concentrated Solar Power Summit US in San Francisco on June 30 – July 1 this year.

For more information, click here: http://www.csptoday.com/us/agenda.shtml

Or

Contact: Sara Lloyd-Jones by email sara@csptoday.com

Related links: DOE, BLM, Transmission, SEIA, Sandia National Laboratories, ITC