Credit: NREL/DOE

March 21, 2017 - Solar Dynamics LLC of Broomfield, Colorado, is partnering with Sargent & Lundy after being awarded a U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative grant to develop a new dispatchable solar power plant (DSP) concept.

Sargent & Lundy is providing conceptual design and engineering support for the new molten-salt tower (MST) concentrating solar power plant design. The firm will be evaluating ways to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and shorten the construction schedule with modular designs and construction techniques.

The MST will allow flexible dispatch of solar power so that it can be used when needed by utilities. The low cost and efficient thermal energy storage inherent in molten-salt tower technology allows a complete separation of collection of solar energy from when power is generated.

The innovations proposed by Solar Dynamics will allow the plant to operate more flexibly than current MST plant configurations and allow the plant to be operated as a peaking resource. The design will also include a number of innovations based on lessons learned from recent plant deployments and include new advanced heliostat technology.

The objective is to create a conceptual design for a peaking concentrating solar tower project with storage to be competitive in the Southwestern United States.

Solar Dynamics LLC is a new technology company focused on developing new advanced concentrating solar power technologies that will help enable improved performance and operational characteristics and allow the next generation of plants to continue down the learning curve.

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