DOE to Invest More than $5 Million for Concentrating Solar Power

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://newsblaze.com/story/20071129123027tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html

DOE to Invest More than $5 Million for Concentrating Solar Power

Additional $7.2 Million Available to Help National Labs Commercialize Proven Technologies

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner today announced DOE will invest $5.2 million in funding to support the development of low-cost Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). As part of the Department's technology transfer efforts, DOE will also make available a Technology Commercialization Development Fund (TCDF) of up to $7.2 million to three of DOE's National Laboratories to support commercialization of clean energy technologies. Together, these projects will help advance President Bush's energy initiatives by accelerating the adoption of renewable energy and moving new clean energy technologies into the marketplace. Assistant Secretary Karsner made the announcements at the American Council on Renewable Energy's National Policy Conference.

"Under the President's leadership, DOE is not only supporting research and development of clean energy technologies, but is accelerating their commercialization to a rate and scale necessary to meet growing energy demand and combat climate change," Assistant Secretary Karsner said. "Our National Laboratories lead the world in energy innovation and DOE is now giving them the support to commercialize their innovations."

The twelve CSP projects selected for negotiation of awards totaling up to $5.2 million (Fiscal Year 2007; and FY'08, subject to Congressional appropriations) are integral to President Bush's Solar America Initiative (SAI), which seeks to make solar energy cost competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. With cost-sharing, the total public-private investment will total nearly $6.6 million. These projects aim to develop technology that dramatically reduces the cost of CSP power and emphasizes the development of storage technologies. Specifically, CSP project goals include reducing the cost of solar power to be regularly available at less 10 cents/kWh by 2015.

CSP systems use the heat generated by concentrating and absorbing the sun's energy to produce thermal energy. This type of solar energy can be used immediately for generating power through a steam turbine or heat engine or it can be saved as thermal energy for later use. Storage of solar energy in this manner removes the intermittency of sunlight, making it "dispatchable" and thus enabling CSP systems to provide energy to homes and businesses day or night. Projects categories include: (1) thermal storage; (2) trough component manufacturing; and (3) advanced CSP systems and/or components.

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[frogcycle]

1. good that they are doing anything

but $5M? That's a pittance! Sounds like tokenism.

[spag68]

2. Solar

They should talk to Frito Lay, which is completing a concentrating system at their plant in Cal. They have supposedly saved 55 million since 1999 by various solar and conservation usage.