Whats the difference between concentrating solar power (CSP) and other solar technologies?
They all make use of the abundant energy of sunlight. But they differ in the ways that they capture and use solar energy to produce heat or electricity. Most solar water- and space-heating technologies, for example, use sunlight directly to produce heat rather than using the sun’s heat to produce steam that drives a generator to produce electricity, the way CSP does. Electricity can also be generated by photovoltaic (PV) systems. These technologies convert sunlight directly to electricity using the semiconductor materials in solar panels. CSP technologies first concentrate the sun’s energy using reflective devices such as troughs or mirror panels. The resulting concentrated heat energy is used to power a conventional turbine and produce electricity. In the future, CSP technologies will be used to power concentrating PV technologies.
