Big Concentrating Solar Tower Project in Nevada Gets DOE Loan Guarantee

By Chris de Morsella on May 25, 2011 1 Comment BLM, Bureau of Land Management, carbon pollution, chris de morsella, clean energy, Climate Change, CO2, concentrated solar power, Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, CSP, Department of Energy, DOE, energy storage, global warming, grid stability, Harry Reid, heliostat, intermittency, load following, loan guarantee, Molten Salt, molten salt storage, molten salt tower, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Nevada, Nevada Power Company, NV Energy, peak demand, Recovery Act, renewable energy, Renewable Portfolio Standard, saltpeter, solar energy, solar power, solar thermal, solar tower, Solar Two facility, SolarReserve, Steven Chu, Tonopah, variability

This post reports on the newly announced loan guarantees for the concentrated solar power (CSP) Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project that is to be built in Nevada. This kind of solar power, because it is paired with a molten salt thermal energy storage capacity has the ability to be a load following generation source that is somewhat insulated from intermittency issues as well. For large concentrated solar thermal energy this decoupling of the energy collection from electricity generation makes a lot of sense, because the molten salt is already being used as the working fluid that captures the sun’s heat.