Debunking the Myths Behind Concentrating Solar Power With Micro-CSP

by RP Siegel
Jan 15, 2016 8:00 AM ET
Campaign: CSR Blogs

Justmeans

Most people think that concentrating solar thermal (CSP) power plants must be large and expensive. Systems are generally based on very large steam turbines with a high overhead cost that can only be amortized over large scale production rates (typically 50-100MW, or more). This amount of power requires thousands of reflectors spread out over a large area. That means it will most likely be sited in some remote area, far from where the power will be used, thereby subject to significant transmission losses.

Aora Solar has developed a different kind of CSP technology that breaks out of this mold.

“Our strategy,” says Zev Rosenzweig, Aora Solar’s CEO and Founder, “is to create CSP that is capable of distributed generation. We take the plant to the user, rather than taking the electricity to the user.”

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RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post.