Co-Locating Wind & Concentrated Solar Power Can Improve Total Capacity Factor

Somehow, I missed a study by NREL and Ohio State University back in March titled Transmission Benefits of Co-Locating Concentrating Solar Power and Wind. Thanks to New Energy News for posting on it this week.

The study finds that co-locating wind and concentrating solar power (CSP) “can improve the capacity factor of the combined plant and the associated transmission investment.” Logical, but you know that we always need studies to prove this kind of thing.

Here’s more from the study:

“This is because of two synergies between wind and CSP. One is that real-time wind and solar resource availability tend to be slightly negatively correlated. The other is that low-cost and highly efficient thermal energy storage (TES) can be incorporated into CSP. TES allows solar generation to be shifted and used to fill-in excess transmission capacity not being used by wind. Adding TES in a transmission constrained system can reduce, but not eliminate curtailment, especially during periods of extended high wind output and high solar output.”

To read the full study, click on the link at the top of this post.