CSP technologies employ mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect solar energy and convert it to heat that produce electricity with the help of heat transfer fluids.
Each university will receive $5 million over the next five years, as part of the department’s SunShot Initiative to make solar energy more cost-competitive by 2020, for research in the area of heat transfer fluids.
University of California – Los Angeles is currently leading a team with researchers from Yale and the University of California, Berkeley to explore the possibility of using liquid metals, which can withstand high temperatures, as potential heat transfer fluids.
University of Arizona on the other hand is partnering researchers from Arizona State University and Georgia Tech to develop and demonstrate molten salt-based fluids to be used as heat transfer fluids.
Commenting on the investments, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sought to highlight the government’s efforts to invest in renewable and cost-effective technologies to diversify the nation’s energy portfolio.
"Advanced concentrating solar power systems represent a promising pathway for utilities to provide reliable, affordable solar electricity to American families and businesses," said Chu.
