2.2.8. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

Concentrating solar power (CSP) generation in California has a long history dating back to 1984. All CSP technologies entail a transfer fluid which absorbs the sun's energy and is used to heat water and produce steam, which then drives a steam turbine generator. There are four CSP technologies, which differ in terms of the receiver system: solar towers, parabolic troughs, compact linear Fresnel reflectors, and dish engines. In California, the total installed CSP is 1249 MW [36], and 69% of the CSP electricity is generated by parabolic troughs, and the remaining 31% by solar towers [45]. Parabolic trough systems focus solar radiation onto a receiver tube that runs down the center of a trough by using curved mirrors; while solar tower systems focus solar radiation on a receiver at the top of a high tower by using computer-controlled mirrors, called heliostats, which track the sun along two axes. The corresponding Ecoinvent processes for parabolic trough and solar tower installations [38] were checked, but the data are specific to South Africa, and they do not consider the production of solar salts (the latter are expected to be added in the next release of the database) [46]. Therefore,

data from the open literature were used for CSP because of their representativeness and completeness, specifically: a wet-cooled 103 MW parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) located in Daggett, CA [47] and a dry-cooled, 106 MW power tower CSP located near Tucson, AZ. Both systems use a mixture of mined nitrate salts for energy storage [48].
