Line-Focus Solar Power Plant Cost Reduction Plan (Milestone Report)

Line-focus solar collectors, in particular parabolic trough collectors, are the most mature and proven technology available for producing central electricity from concentrated solar energy. Because this technology has over 25 years of successful operational experience, resulting in a low perceived risk, it is likely that it will continue to be a favorite of investors for some time. Theconcentrating solar power (CSP) industry is developing parabolic trough projects that will cost billions of dollars, and it is supporting these projects with hundreds of millions of dollars of research and development funding. While this technology offers many advantages over conventional electricity generation -- such as utilizing plentiful domestic renewable fuel and having very low emissionsof greenhouse gases and air pollutants -- it provides electricity in the intermediate power market at about twice the cost of its conventional competitor, combined cycle natural gas. The purpose of this document is to define a set of activities from fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2016 that will make this technology economically competitive with conventional means.