By Jason Deign

It makes perfect sense for Spanish CSP companies to get out and about these days. They have led the development of CSP technology for the last decade and now, thanks to pernicious legislation, have very little left to stay at home for.

No surprise, then, to see Abengoa snapping up bids in South Africa, or Sener, Acciona and TSK collaborating on Morocco’s first CSP plant. But while Spanish companies have the most muscle and motivation to pick up major CSP contracts worldwide, they are not alone.

The US, CSP’s spiritual homeland thanks to the decades-old Solar Energy Generating Systems complex in California, is also home to an important and experienced solar thermal industry.

Arguably leading the sector in the US is BrightSource Energy, which has its roots in the pioneering Israeli CSP developer Luz.

Currently the company is engaged in building the world’s biggest CSP project, the 377MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California’s Mojave Desert.

BrightSource also has several other projects, including a solar-to-steam demonstration plant developed in conjunction with Chevron in Coalinga, California.

And on a par with BrightSource in terms of capabilities is SolarReserve, which has five projects in the US, including 150MW power towers in Blythe, California, and Gila Bend, Arizona.

Then there is a host of smaller players, ranging from the power tower developer eSolar to Sopogy, a Honolulu-based micro-CSP company.

Loan guarantees

Many of these companies, and in particular the larger players, were until recently able to take advantage of the US Department of Energy’s loan guarantee scheme to get major projects off the ground. But the loans programme finished in the autumn of 2011.

Since then, the CSP industry in the USA has been bedding in. Companies such as BrightSource and SolarReserve, which previously had been busy trying to gain permits and funds for projects, got busy building their plants. This process is nearing an end, though.

Ivanpah is on schedule to deliver electricity to the grid later this year. Infinia, a dish Stirling developer, has proved its technology with a 1.5MW plant for the US army in Utah. So where should American CSP companies be looking to for future opportunities?

A decent case could be made for staying focused on the US market. SolarReserve, for one, still has plenty of work to do. Its 200MW Saguache project in Colorado and 100MW Quartzsite plant in Arizona have both suffered delays, with completion not expected until 2017.

BrightSource, too, has unfinished business in the US. Its 500MW Palen project, in conjunction with Abengoa of Spain, is currently being reviewed by the California Energy Commission after the developer decided to switch the proposal from parabolic trough to power tower technology.

At the same time, though, getting decent-sized projects permitted and funded in the USA will be a lot more difficult without the loan guarantee project. Also, American sentiment towards CSP has shifted since the beginning of the decade.

BrightSource has had to shelve a couple of its projects, including a planned 500MW facility at Hidden Hills, in California’s Inyo County. Matthew Feinstein, senior analyst at Lux Research, says: “Eventually, no matter what, you’ve got to go overseas.

Renewable Portfolio Standard

“The US could remain OK in the short term, particularly if California raises its RPS [Renewable Portfolio Standard] and does so soon such that project construction can begin in the next couple of years before the ITC [investment tax credit] goes down.”

However, he adds: “That’s a really short window. That extends construction of projects until 2020 or so; that’s only seven years, maybe. So eventually they need to pursue bigger, more long-term goals like in Saudi Arabia, which is probably the best market today.”

There are indeed signs the US players looking beyond their national frontiers. In July, for example, BrightSource announced agreements with a clutch of Chinese organisations.

SolarReserve, meanwhile, already boasts CSP plants in Spain and has entered the South African market as a PV and CSP player. The company’s website also highlights development activity in Algeria, Australia, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Italy, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Even the smaller players seem keenly aware of the potential of international markets. Sopogy, for instance, claims to have completed projects as far afield as the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Papua New Guinea.

US companies “are making a lot of progress in countries like Morocco, South Africa and Saudi Arabia,” observes Dr Luis Crespo, president of the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association, ESTELA. “They are competing with the Spaniards.”

Unless there are radical changes to the US market, it seems, they may need to compete a lot more in the future.

To respond to this article, please write to Jason Deign

Or contact the editor, Jennifer Muirhead