Benchmark of Concentrating Solar Power Plants: Historical, Current and Future Technical and Economic Development☆

Abstract This paper compares the evolution of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plants. The study is based on a data of 240 CSP plants whose give us a roadmap of technical and economic characteristics of these systems. On the basis of this information collected from the literature, we benchmarked and analyzed the state of the CSP plants from 1982 to 2020. As statistical results show, 87% of CSP projects are located in Spain and USA, but other countries have invested in CSP since 2012. Solar technologies analyzed are Parabolic Trough collector (PTC), Solar Power Tower (SPT), Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR), and Parabolic Dish Collector (PDC). As detailed data studies for Fresnel and Dish are hardly available, special attention was given to parabolic trough system. The progressive reduction in investment cost of PTC technology over time is presented, taking also into account the energy storage option. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that PTC with thermal oil and molten salt storage at 50 MW is the most mature system, but SPT plants are promising and might have the greatest potential by early 2018.