From Concept to Commercialization: 40 Years of Concentrating Solar Power Research
From testing space shuttle tiles to making electricity from sunlight, the world's first multimegawatt solar tower has contributed to energy research, space exploration, defense testing and solar energy commercialization since it was commissioned at Sandia National Laboratories in July 1978. The solar tower is a key component of a specific type of utility-scale solar energy technology that uses hundreds of large mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on a tower. The heat from the concentrated sunlight is absorbed by either a liquid, gas or solid and stored or used immediately in a heat exchanger to generate electricity. This type of energy, called concentrating solar power, is appealing because it can supply renewable energy -- even when the sun is not shining -- without using batteries for storage. To mark the National Solar Thermal Test Facility's 40th anniversary this month, present and past Sandia leaders and researchers, industry leaders and...