The US is continuing its decades-long effort to commercialize a technology that converts sunlight into heat, funding a series of new projects using that energy to brew beer, produce low-carbon fuels, or keep grids running.
On July 25, the Department of Energy will announce it is putting $33 million into nine pilot or demonstration projects based on concentrating solar thermal power, MIT Technology Review can report exclusively. The technology uses large arrays of mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, where it’s used to heat up molten salt, ceramic particles, or other materials that can store that energy for extended periods.
The DOE has been funding efforts to get concentrated solar energy off the ground [~since at least the 1970s~](https://www.sandia.gov/labnews/2018/08/16/solar-40/). The idea was initially driven in part by the quest to develop more renewable, domestic sources of energy during the oil crisis of that era.
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The US is continuing its decades-long effort to commercialize a technology that converts sunlight into heat, funding a series of new projects using that energy to brew beer, produce low-carbon fuels, or keep grids running.
On July 25, the Department of Energy will announce it is putting $33 million into nine pilot or demonstration projects based on concentrating solar thermal power, MIT Technology Review can report exclusively. The technology uses large arrays of mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, where it’s used to heat up molten salt, ceramic particles, or other materials that can store that energy for extended periods.
The DOE has been funding efforts to get concentrated solar energy off the ground [~since at least the 1970s~](https://www.sandia.gov/labnews/2018/08/16/solar-40/). The idea was initially driven in part by the quest to develop more renewable, domestic sources of energy during the oil crisis of that era.
But early commercial efforts to produce clean electricity based on this technology [~have been bedeviled~](https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/03/18/8794/one-of-the-worlds-largest-solar-facilities-is-in-trouble/) by high costs, low output, and other challenges.