Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) With Storage Can Benefit the Grid

The evidence is piling up that when the real value of energy is considered, electricity generated from concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with storage capability outperforms solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power.

Rigorous research studies cited throughout The Economic and Reliability Benefits of CSP With Thermal Energy Storage: Recent Studies and Research Needs, a report from the CSP Alliance, show that the services derived from ,Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP) with storage add value not only to CSP, but to PV and wind as well.

This may be intuitively obvious, but a grid operator responsible for keeping the lights on and aware that the lights failing would be a career-defining moment will prefer this study to intuition. Cited studies from NREL, LBNL, and others document added energy value and capacity value from CSP with storage.