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Heliostats reflecting a bright future for concentrating solar thermal.

HelioCon’s Midterm Roadmap cover

News

HelioCon’s Midterm Roadmap is Published

Since its establishment, the Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) has made substantial progress toward closing many of the gaps in concentrating solar power (CSP) research. Learn more about HelioCon’s commercial CSP deployments and SHIP (solar heat for industrial processes) opportunity.

Read the HelioCon Roadmap report and learn more about HelioCon’s pursuit of energy innovation.

July 26, 2017 - Controllers at the Ivanpah Solar Project (Photo by Dennis Schroeder / NLR)

Publication Highlight

Concentrating solar thermal power in the U.S.:
Lessons from setbacks at Ivanpah, light for the future

The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility has been a landmark project as an U.S. renewable energy innovation, showcasing both the potential and challenges of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP). This article highlights how early design choices—particularly the lack of thermal energy storage—limited the plant’s economic performance as energy markets evolved. Despite setbacks, Ivanpah offers critical lessons for the future of clean, dispatchable power.

Read about the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility Project here.

The Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) supports research, development, validation, commercialization, and deployment of low-cost and high-performance heliostats.

HelioCon Image Gallery

The National Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories. Photo credit: Sandia National Laboratories

Dr. Margaret Gordon inspects heliostats at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility. Photo credit: Sandia National Laboratories

The NREL team gave presentations at the 2022 SolarPACES conference in Albuquerque, N.M.

Dr. Rebecca Mitchell next to her presenation at the 2022 SolarPACES conference in Albuquerque, N.M. Photo credit: NREL

HelioCon at Workshop on Solar Energy, Aug 24, 2022 in San Diego, CA

Crescent Dunes plant waking up in the morning

Crescent Dunes heliostats defrosting in the morning sun

The NREL drone team collecting data at Crescent Dunes plants

Tucker Farrell getting ready to launch the drone to take pictures of far-field heliostats at Crescent Dunes plant

Devon Kesseli measuring the reflectance of a Crescent Dunes heliostat

Rebecca Mitchell radioing into the control room at Crescent Dunes plant

NREL’s Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (CSP) team recently hosted a group from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) team for a tour of facilities at the NREL Flatirons campus in August 2023.