Red Sun and Solar Power Plant

Can a solar power plant provide electricity if the Sun is not shining?

A California firm is converting sunlight to heat and storing it in molten salt so it can supply electricity when the wind is calm or the sun isn’t shining The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility in Nevada is the first utility-scale concentrating solar plant that can provide electricity whenever it's needed most, even after dark.

Which solar power plants are dry cooled?

The four dry-cooled systems were the three power plants at the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility near Barstow, California, and the Genesis Solar Energy Project in Riverside County, California. Of 15 CSP projects under construction or development in the US as of March 2015, 6 were wet systems, 7 were dry systems, 1 hybrid, and 1 unspecified.

Why did SolarReserve get a PPA?

In 2017, now bankrupt American CSP developer SolarReserve got awarded a PPA to realize the 150 MW Aurora Solar Thermal Power Project in South Australia at a record low rate of just AUD$ 0.08/kWh or close to USD$ 0.06/kWh. Unfortunately the company failed to secure financing and the project got cancelled.

What is a commercial concentrating solar power plant?

Commercial concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, also called "solar thermal power stations", were first developed in the 1980s. The 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located in California's Mojave Desert, is the world's largest solar thermal power plant project.

Will SolarReserve build a second solar-thermal plant in South Africa?

And SolarReserve is planning to break ground on a second plant roughly the same size as Crescent Dunes in South Africa later this year. Other solar-thermal developers also have large towers under construction in Morocco and Chile that will use molten salt.

What makes a CSP plant a dispatchable form of solar?

A CSP plant can incorporate thermal energy storage, which stores energy either in the form of sensible heat or as latent heat (for example, using molten salt), which enables these plants to continue supplying electricity whenever it is needed, day or night. This makes CSP a dispatchable form of solar.