An NREL researcher uses VSHOT to test a parabolic trough concentrator.

By Dan McCue

Within the next few weeks the US department of Energy’s (DOE) SunShot Initiative will announce the recipients of its latest tranche of funding. At present SunShot provides about $50-$60 million in competitive funding annually to between 35 and 40 entities – companies and universities – that are engaged in various aspects of CSP-related research or development initiatives.

The new awards will likely expand that portfolio of funding recipients by about 20. All are engaged in research dealing with “component technologies” such as collectors, receivers, power block and heat transfer fluids, says Dr. Ranga Pitchumani, SunShot’s director for CSP.

“Within a few months time, we will likely have 65 or so CSP projects in our management portfolio,” he adds.

Separate funding, under the auspices of SunShot’s sister organization, the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy, supports additional funding awards to entities engaged in thermal storage research and development toward the SunShot goal.

 “All of this is with an eye toward meeting DOE’s aggressive and challenging goal of reducing the cost of solar power to six cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) by 2020, without subsidies,” he explains.

The federal government has long believed that the goal of six cents per kWh – effective grid parity – should be the goal of its renewable energy policy. Consequently, the SunShot Initiative was established two years ago to pick up the tempo of activity and make that goal a reality.

The Initiative has taken a scientific approach to meeting its targets. Having used an economic model to construct the six cents per kWh end target, SunShot is now focusing on the specific technological targets each component should have, so that once combined, the economic target will be met.

“Our role is to give focus to a wide range of programs”, explains SunShot Director Ramamoorthy Ramesh.

"All of our funding opportunities are basically grand challenges that spur innovations in the individual component technologies to meet these goals", agrees Dr. Pitchumani.

As an example, he points to the challenge tied to the current round of funding for projects involving collector technology. "What we're looking at is a target of $75 per meter-square, down from the current value of $180 to $200 per meter-square," he explains. "So as you can see, we've got some extremely aggressive goals."

Receiver technology is another focus area. The aim is to develop receivers that can operate in very high temperature systems, at 800 degrees to 1,000 degrees. A key challenge is containing heat loss.

As a result, the SunShot Initiative has requested funding applicants to design and demonstrate receivers that can operate at those high temperatures with “tremendous collection efficiencies”.

Similarly, the initiative is asking researchers and engineers in the power block space to shoot for conversion efficiencies of 50 percent or more, and to do so with dry cooling technologies compatible with the kind of parched environment U.S. CSP plants are built in.

Funding through the SunShot Initiative is for a three-year period, during which time recipients are in constant contact with project managers.

"The idea is to ideally start integrating this breakthrough technology into CSP systems to demonstrate how we will meet our ultimate goal," Dr. Pitchumani said.

Building momentum

Somewhat surprisingly, Prof. Ramesh says that early on in the SunShot Initiative's existence, there was a lot of debate over whether CSP should be included.

"The two people who fought the battle for it were myself, at the lower end of the totem pole, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu," Prof. Ramesh says.

"Our argument was straight-forward: Right now, both CSP and PV are producing electricity at a rate of 18 cents a kilowatt hour, so their starting point is the same, and the end point we want to reach, that six cents per kilowatt hour, is the same for both. So why pick the winners?"

That said, Prof. Ramesh admits to being "very bullish" on CSP, particularly in light of its thermal storage capabilities.

"If we didn't believe in the technology, we wouldn't provide $60 million a year in funding for it," he notes.

Both Prof. Ramesh and Dr. Pitchumani describe the current atmosphere at Sunshot's offices and at its partner facilities, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, and the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico as "charged."

For Dr. Pitchumani, the most exciting aspects of the programme are the technical challenges inherent in the Initiative’s goals and the opportunity to "really enable CSP to be one of the viable options for solar technologies."

"We see this as an exciting and important time in the evolution of the industry," he added. "We, the national labs and our various partners, are all on the same page, so there's a great momentum building."

Broadening the talent pool

Dr Pitchumani has begun broadening the SunShot Initiative's performer mix by enlisting universities in the effort to create a new generation of high temperature-compatible heat transfer fluids.

"We are soliciting university alliances to look at some very fundamental science and engineering aspects that will lead to new types of fluid that can stand up to these high temperature environments and do so in a safe and efficient manner" he explains.

Meanwhile, SunShot’s Deputy Solar Energy Technologies Program Manager, Minh Le, is keeping the momentum in the commercial arena through his oversight of the business incubator program, originally started by DOE and NREL in 2007.

To date, the agency has awarded five rounds of funding, including one that was solely dedicated to startups in the CSP sector. "We’ve provided seed funding to about 40 companies through grants that ranged from $1 million to $4 million," confirms Mr. Le.

He notes with pride that in the wake of those grants, the participating companies have been able to raise an astonishing $1.8 billion in private equity funding.

"Funding aside, I think one of the most important things we provide is an eco-system that allows these companies to get up and running," says Mr Le. Each start-up has close connections with the national labs, where there are opportunities for collaboration and knowledge-transfer to help them to improve their technology.

"Now, not every company survives. When you're striving to invent new technology, you are often shooting for the moon and these goals can be very hard to meet," he continues. So far, however, those companies have already created 1,300 jobs and more are expected to come.

There is currently half a GW of electricity generation from CSP in the US. A further 1.3 GW is due to come online in the next few years. "We expect CSP to be a strong and important part of our energy future, not only on its own, but through hybrid facilities where it is paired with PV and/or natural gas" confirms Dr. Pitchumani.

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Rikki Stancich: rstancich@csptoday.com

Image credit: NREL