Concentrated solar power (CSP) plants with storage systems are expected to result in lower installation costs as global deployment accelerates.

Proposed projects for future development were already seeing a 30% reduction in capital costs, utility-scale solar power project developer SolarReserve South Africa development VP Terence Govender said during a recent media tour of the company’s Northern Cape projects.

“It is important to keep in mind that these CSP [plants] with thermal energy storage (TES) systems are delivering both energy generation and energy storage, at a combined price.

“If you actually separated out the cost of equivalent battery storage, the remaining cost associated with generation would be very competitive with even the lowest solar photovoltaic (PV) or wind power prices,” he stated during the tour of the company’s Redstone CSP project, which is under construction in the Northern Cape.

SolarReserve had achieved substantial cost improvements in its CSP plants that use TES technology. This included cost and efficiency improvements achieved at the 100 MW Redstone CSP project – in which SolarReserve and ACWA Power were investment partners.

The project would have 12 hours of energy storage and was designed to operate until 22:00, which meant it could supply power during South Africa’s peak demand period.

The parabolic-trough technology plant would be equipped with a molten-salt storage system that allowed for four-and-a-half hours of TES and was expected to be operational in the second half of 2018.

The project was a preferred bidder in the third bid window of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

Meanwhile, Govender noted that the cost of solar PV had also decreased considerably from R2.80/kWh at the inception of the REIPPPP in 2011, to 60c/kWh at present.

During the media tour of SolarReserve’s Jasper PV plant, in the Northern Cape, sponsored by the US Embassy in South Africa, he pointed out that the REIPPPP was driving cost-reduction, and supported localisation, jobs and innovation.

Govender stated that, as the global solar industry grew, the relationship between renewable energy and sustainable local enterprise and economic development was becoming intrinsically linked.

He noted that, under the REIPPPP, local content, local enterprise support and economic development were key requirements.