Concentrating solar power technology has had its doubters, but throw in a big dose of energy storage and now you’re cooking with gas, so to speak. That’s our takeaway from a phone call we had last week with Fred Redell, Managing Director of global solar giant and concentrating solar specialist Abengoa.

The conversation was timely because just yesterday the Energy Department announced a new $102 million round of funding for solar projects, a gigantic slice of which is going to ramp up concentrating solar power (CSP) tech to next-generation status, and it just so happens Abengoa is one of the CSP awardees.

Solar Energy And Energy Storage

With that in mind, here’s what Redell has to say about the interplay between solar energy and energy storage:

For our solar thermal electric projects we’ve been adding energy storage in one form or another essentially all the time…they [CSP systems] inherently have a certain amount of energy storage just because of the thermal inertia of the project. Our towers have included steam energy storage mostly for operational purposes, and then our Solana project […]