Concentrated solar power is an old technology making a comeback. Here's how it works

Article originally published by the ABC, authored by James Purtill.

While CSP was once the great hope for replacing coal and gas-fired generation, it's now generally considered to have been eclipsed by cheaper forms of renewable generation, like solar panels and wind turbines.

Recently, however, it's been making a quiet comeback.

The reason for this boils down to three words that describe one of the major challenges of decarbonising the grid: overnight energy storage.

The CSIRO's Renewable Energy Storage Roadmap, released last week, predicts that by 2050, CSP will be the cheapest way to store energy for 8–24 hours.

Developing this "medium-duration" storage is a necessary step to switching off coal- and gas-fired generators that produce most of the power we use at night.

For this reason, CSP projects are starting to gather momentum.

Read full article here.